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Agencies
December 30, 2009
First Published: 09:00 IST(31/12/2009)
It is the 66th birth anniversary of singer, songwriter and actor John
Denver, who's known for his songs like Country Roads – Take me
Home, Rocky Mountain High and Thank God I'm a Country Boy.
Many of the songs Denver wrote or recorded became fixtures in
American culture and made him one of the most popular
singer/songwriters of the 1970s.
Born in 1943 in Roswell, New Mexico, United States, Denver, the
son of an Air Force pilot, wasn't really interested in music until
Elvis Presley hit the scene. Denver dropped out of Texas Tech
University and moved to Los Angeles, where he took a day job and
sang in lounges at night.
During this time, at the suggestion of a record producer, he changed
his last name to Denver. He caught a break in 1965 when he was
chosen over 250 other musicians to be the lead singer for the Chad
Mitchell Trio, a folk group. He toured with the band and recorded
the album That's the Way It's Gonna Be with them.
In 1969 wrote the song Leaving on a Jet Plane, which was recorded
by Peter, Paul andMary and became a smash hit. Once he had a
foothold in the music scene, Denver cut the albums Rhymes and
Reasons (1969) and Take Me to Tomorrow (1970), and scored
another hit with the single Take Me Home, Country Roads, which
sold a million copies. The next year, he recorded Rocky Mountain
High" an autobiographical song that became his signature and
spoke of his love of the land. A string of hit albums continued in
the early 1970s including Poems, Prayers and Promises (1971), Aerie
(1972), Farewell Andromeda (1973), and Back Home Again (1974).
The 1975 pressing of John Denver's Greatest Hits eventually sold
ten million copies, one of the best-selling albums in RCA Records'
history. That same year, he was named Entertainer of the Year by
the Country Music Association. While critics sometimes chided
Denver's music and image for being too bland or too wholesome,
his popularity soared because his feel-good songs struck a chord
with people who wanted music to make them happy. In 1977, he
crossed over into movies when he starred with George Burns in
'Oh, God!' in which he played an ordinary man chosen by God
(Burns) to carry his message. He appeared in scores of television
specials during the 1970s.
Denver's other recordings in that decade include An Evening with
John Denver (1975), Wind song (1975), Live in London (1976), Spirit
(1976), I Want to Live (1977), John Denver (1979), and A Christmas
Together with the Muppets (1979). Denver remained popular in the
early 1980s with the albums Autograph (1980), Some Days Are
Diamonds (1981), Perhaps Love (1981), Seasons of the Heart (1982),
It's About Time (1983), and Collection (1984). The late 1980s
presented some difficulties for Denver - he was arrested for drunk
driving and his record sales dropped. He devoted himself more to
social causes such as Friends of the Earth, Human/Dolphin
Foundation, Save the Children Foundation, and UNICEF.
He was also active in promoting space travel, and he was a member
of the National Space Institute and the European Space Agency.
Denver continued to record and released the albums Dreamland
Express (1985), One World (1986), The Flower That Shattered the
Stone (1990), Earth Songs (1990), Different Directions (1991), and
Higher Ground (1991). Denver always enjoyed flying and was
known as sort of a daredevil around Aspen, Colorado, where he
maintained one of his residences.
Denver died on October 12, 1997 when an experimental small
plane he was flying crashed into Monterey Bay off the California
coast.