Peter Paul & Mary - Leaving On A Jet Plane (1968)

[magmalin]

Great song, great singers! Used to listen to that kind of music on AFN Munich at the end of the 60ies and the beginning of the 70ies. I don't really fancy soldiers and warlike things but I do miss AFN.

[1999Mikee]

There is a keen resemblance here between Mary and the character in The Dark Crystal movie.

[fundogge]

...my first crush-Linda S. sang this in 3rd grade music class (1967?).

[monoceros1222]

I took my first flight on a Boeing 727 from Columbus to Chicago, then on to Denver, at the age of 6 in late 1967. Love this song!!

[grindlbebe]

Pecar Electronics on the east side of Detroit. I was the first one in at 7 a.m. to dust and vacuum. Freshman at Wayne State, fall 1969. I had the best sounds of anyone who just turned 18 - and this was wonderful at dawn.

[lozzer37]

I've cried so many times when I hear this wonderful song so many friends gone away that I see so rarely these days. :(

[grindlbebe]

I was a freshman at Wayne State University in 1969, and got a job at Pecar Electronics on Detroit's east side. I dusted and swept early every morning before anyone else came in. And I got to listen to this each morning. Loved it. Still do.

[hsoliz]

38 years ago my first girlfriend sang this to me before she transferred to another college... and that was the end of our relationship. After all these years, this song still gets to me.

[atfatw]

@hsoliz life in composed of tragedy and joy every blouse, every shirt ,every coat, every shee,t is composed of two things warp and woof. you cannot have material without these two things and you cannot have a life without joy and tragedy.

[SIGNALSTAT]

i read one time back in the day mary travers spent a night with a young john denver at a hotel and the rest is rock and roll history.

[snakkeonps3]

how beautiful art

[aceofspades02]

With all the respect to PP&M, Jewel's version is better.

[KEVINROTHMUSIC]

There was only one Mary. How wonderful to have known her.

[SEAMOKTactical]

Their relevance never faded. Evident by this very channel....a great trip back to a simpler time.

[ruben1million]

This is the only good song this people had. And it wasn't even theirs.

[StevieB1362]

@ruben1million Come now my misinformed friend. Didn't you ever hear Puff the Magic Dragon? Or did they steal that from someone too & nobody ever told me?

[thears2u]

I had a girl crush on her when I was 8. I feel sad to hear of her passing. I loved her voice, so positive and cool.

[2004009ditto]

Dam she was hot

[1434bigkev]

Hey BushMass your not alone brother happened to me to and its been 44 years and I still think about it too

[CIRMCPIM]

Miss you Mary.

[aimeemannfan2010]

About 15 years ago, I went to LA to visit my older brother. As I was boarding the plane to leave he sang this song. That was the last time I saw him. Miss you bro!

[Brad410]

Hi, I wasn't in Nam, but this was my childhood. It is what it is. I didn't know I was this old.

[estelladog1]

Love this group. Grew up listening to them as a child while NHG1 and BM were in NAM. I am listening to it now as my NAM guy had such a F'd up life from day one, after 13 months says he's hollow and never coming back, so there he runs, and know he won't look back, as he simply can't or he'd be vulnerable. SOOOOOO Dec 2011 and am one sad girl. That all said, and know one RGP is sorely missed irregardless! wah

[chrysm6]

Heaven Bless the Lovely, Talented and Incomparable Mary Travers. What an indelible mark in the fabric of music history this trio has emblazoned. The songs presented by this unforgettable group helped to form the musical thematic backdrop to so many souls, socio-culturally and personally, for nearly 50 years. The trios well chosen songs rallied and echoed for awareness, equality, change, loss, longing and love. Words of gratitude could never be enough to thank them for their amazing contribution.

[graemelockieable]

@chrysm6 Very well said. So nice to occasionally read intelligent, thoughtful comments that also hold a well of truth.

[BushMass]

Another song that reminds me of my days as a young Marine during the 'Nam days and the Irish girl who broke my heart...1968 and it's 2011 and I still think about her...DAMN!

[jlilyroth12]

@BushMass Contact her. Nothing ventured,nothing gained. Good luck!!

[BushMass]

@jlilyroth12 Thanks, but she's gone...

[TheCarin12]

@BushMass The water slide at De Nang was the best. It least thats how I remember it. Can you remember the Ferris Wheel in the delta. I was in Nam in 81. Tough fighting. Germans everwhere. Loved this song by the Mamas an Papas. Opps flashback. Going down.....tell Maggie I lo...ve... her... aaarrr...ggg.

[wilcarr1]

@TheCarin12 //jerk

[TheCarin12]

@BushMass Notice you have looked at a lot of Justin Bieber videos. I think he would look hot dressed up as a Marine. Love to have a guy like looking after my ass in the brutal sweaty jungles of Vietnam.

[dparx100]

@BushMass Thank you for your service, and sorry about the Irish girl! From An American of Irish descent!!!

[cspaikido]

Written by John Denver.

[chuckbuckbobuck]

It says the song was released in 1968 but I remember it being a hit in 1969---am I mistaken?

[video198712]

I love this song but I always started crying everytime I would hear it in the '70's

[anyalover101]

is that a girl that sounds like a dude?

[RaptureandZune]

@anyalover101 No, it is just because the video was recorded with a potato.

[safalbhandari]

this is the song i will sing for my girlfriend if canada give me visa

[cobra952top]

Just curious as to why you chose the name Nixon rather than Johnson or Kennedy.

[762girl]

@nhgranite1 - that was one of the most moving posts in reaction to a song I've ever read. In tears now.

[gazrobbo53]

Love you Mary

[MrJonesstones]

I think that Mary is a fairy.

[balderdashman]

Epic! Unbelievably epic! You can actually feel the rain pouring. No tune has ever set a scene so eloquently as this.

[phil4508]

listened to this...the night before joining the USAF....quite a change...especially during the war...

[ttippau]

Mary Travers had such a beautiful voice. It's so smooth.

[buddyeight2000]

I was leaving Macquire Airforce base leaving to go over seas I was with my Mom Dad Sisters and Brothers and my best friend at that time Tom Mason, it was like they didn't think I would be back. I did come back, a totally different person, I still cry when i hear this song, it was played until we all were on the plane.

[tribegoddess]

That's the year I came home from Nam, just to get pelted by tomatoes and rotten eggs as I got off the plane. That hurt worst than the bullet and grenade shrapnel in my legs. Sp5 Miles

[aebergen]

@tribegoddess- I'm so sorry it was that way for you. It may be a little late, but God bless you for your service!

[brittney1641]

oh nevermind

[brittney1641]

Is mary still alive?

[RobsFeedToday]

@brittney1641 Sadly, Mary passed away on September 16, 2009, after fighting leukemia, at the age of 72

[brittney1641]

@RobsFeedToday oh :(

[rickyh51]

is the picture dark on your machines??

[harleyridinusmcbrat]

I know what it meant to that generation, and I know what it means to those of us in this generation who know it. I hated watching my dad and loved ones leave for Iraq and Afghanistan and this was always the song in the back of my mind. Always makes my breath catch.

[iwasbornin1979May]

Mary was so BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!

[5620103893]

2011 Song is still popular 43 years later. That's a sign that it's a great song. I was born in 95. I'm 16 and listen to this

[chris1963100]

you have to love singers who sing with their soul just watch her face

[ZijiXiji]

Is there any chance Mary is a transexual?

[Clothahump1]

@ZijiXiji - you gotta be kidding. She was a babe, nothing tranny about her.

[TheBlackSheepLovers]

@ZijiXiji she was married like 4 times and had kids. She was very unique looking even after she was older. She died at 72.

[hunngggry]

mY BABY LEAVES ME EVERY SUMMER TO GO HALF WAY ACROSS THE united states to be with her father and thiss is my life anthem for those times :(

[ade425mxy]

Wow, again Id love to restore this, Im quite capable, plus can re-create the 'video' look thats lost of the TeleRceording

[Aonexia]

@ade425mxy DO IT PLEASE!!!!!!!!! Restore it Please mate!?! Please....?

[ade425mxy]

@Aonexia Need a copy first, preferably the Highest Gen VHS that this has been 'traveling' on. Need to cap it at ridicules levels, makes the Blu-Ray encode that much better

[Aonexia]

@ade425mxy Cheers Mate! :) You have another subscriber! Me...:)

[blackforest270]

I remember our grade school class singing this song in the spring of 1969,i was only nine years old and remember what a sad song it was.

[rennyshelton]

Beautiful version of my favorite John Denver song.

[ellisjennerstudios]

love john denvers version better just my opinion

[bigdaddylonglove]

Awesome post my friend! Thank you for your service and I'm glad you made it home. I spent 12 months in Iraq ('04-'05) after being called back into active duty and every night I'd look up into the black sky and stare at the bright stars counting my blessings thinking I was one day closer to being home with my family again. I could not wait till I was on the "Jet Plane" heading home. God bless.

[Max4leafclover]

Oh man

I can't believe mary is dead

She passed a few months ago :(

Good old wholesome music

[demonhoopa]

@Max4leafclover Hard to believe but Mary has actually been gone just short of 2 years.

[DragonRider98100]

i just turned 13 and i know this music mostly by heart

[jordansmarket]

Well, sir, thank you for your selfless service to your country!!

[KenSterMan11]

@nhgranite Wow, saw them in Atlanta 2 years ago live. I dont know what else to say. That's all i got.

[KenSterMan11]

@nhgranite Wow, saw them in Atlanta 2 years ago live. I dont know what else to say. That's all i got.

[nc28016]

I guess 4 people are diehard beiber fans and don't know REAL music!!

and this is definitely the BEST version of this song!!

[NTC335]

名曲だぁね☆

[nhgranite1]

I cannot conceive or relate how much this song meant to me after two years in nam, used to sit on sand bagged walls outside hootch or bunker listening to AFVN radio out of Saigon, might be the Dells, might be Iron Butterfly, might be Marvin Gaye, but this, this was an anthem as i gazed skyward toward Freedom Bird heading back to states, knowing I was there for two years, would not, could not go back to states the way it was, guilt, fear, pride doing what everyone my age said was wrong-greatsong

[HellBlazerRaiser]

@nhgranite1 Wow....

Reading your post brought me to tears and added a new layer to one of my favorite songs.

[bragsd29]

@nhgranite1 Thankyou so much for serving and also great post. It was very moving.

[nhgranite1]

@bragsd29 much appreciated-thanks all.

[jimtraner]

@nhgranite1 Welcome home brother. After all these years its still nice to be back in the World.

[alfcab]

@nhgranite1

i'm blown away at how you got such a powerful memory so eloquently into 500 characters. brilliant, thanks.

[The420Roger]

@nhgranite1 Thank you for your service.

[kykahl]

@nhgranite1 GOD BLESS YOU. god bless you sir. these might have been dirty hippies personally, but they made good music. To hear that this was an anthem for yourself in vietnam gives me a feeling of greater respect for this song. I salute you sir, and i hope you see this message and take my feelings of gratitude to heart. I also hope all of the socialist liberals of today see this, all of you people who called soldiers of nam "baby killers", i hope you all feel good about yourselves, you trash..

[primeusername1]

@nhgranite1

Your post is almost as good as the music- beautifully written. Well done.

[nhgranite1]

@primeusername1 thanks all for the comment(s), memories are dying but the song lives on.

[creativeengineer]

@nhgranite1 Most of the Viet vets were doing as they were told. Most have no blame. The big mistake they and the American public made was not having the politicians like Richard Nixon executed. History is now repeating itself with George W Bush. A war is lost when those responsible don't accept any accountability. How the American public can be so utterly stupid and fickle as to give Willam Calley and his band of paedophiles, rapists and murderers freedom defies all understanding of justice.

[cobra952top]

@creativeengineer Nixon started the war in Viet Nam? Enlighten me.

[creativeengineer]

@cobra952top Never said he did. But he certainly kept it going. See how many he and Kissinger killed in Cambodia and Laos. And the cowardly yanks are still leaving their their cluster bombs in the jungles for the kids to pick up, rather than cleaning up the mess they created. Execution for Nixon? You betcha. Bullet to the head would have been justified, just like what the yanks did to Bin Laden, without trial.

[wilcarr1]

@creativeengineer //Killing gooks in Nam was fun.

[TheCarin12]

@wilcarr1 You ignorant fool. I stood in the jungle wearing only my underpants for two years. I had an aluminum foil hat on my head and the gooks didnt come within 5 clicks of me. But the 64th Division had a ferris wheel. All we had was a water slide. Damn... If only I had my dingo den and the big sloup with me in the Nang. If only I could have shot an arrow through Pol Pots ass or knee.

[4444Werty]

@cobra952top It was started by the Jesuits in an intentional indirect way.

[MrPeterBurban]

@nhgranite1 I agree this is a memorable song but for different reasons. Every time I left on a trip it usually involved a plane ride. Karachi, Tasmania, Spain, Hawaii, California,etc. As the plane was taking off I always sung this song to myself. I was already missing my family and the plane had not yet left the ground.

[white33710]

@nhgranite1 Thank you. That was the most heartfelt comment I have ever read on here.

[loulouwalker]

@nhgranite1 Thank you so much for your sacrifice. :)

[iw32]

This song always gets to me.It never fails to move me deeply.

[sneezyize]

Are we sure that the trio sung this song anywhere in 1968, if memory serves me correctly they didn't release the song on a 45 rpm until the summer of 1969 (it was the second to last #1 song of the 1960's, according to Billboard Magazine's HOT 100 charts, with the last one being Diana Ross & The Supremes' "Someday We'll Be Together")?

[PBRTV1998]

@sneezyize This song was on the 1967 PP&M release "Album 1700". The song did not hit #1 until it was released as a single in 1969.

[tonyptchu99]

the audio is terrible

[MrMfloor]

Dammmmnnnnn you two people who dislike this song!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MrDesaix]

the best god bless em all

[davidLw15]

Interestingly, I lived in Melbourne from 1960 to 1963. I saw then in concert at the SPAC (Saratoga Performing Arts Center) in July 1968.

[rockingoldies]

I agree

[yipchow]

Best version.