John Denver - Rhythm n Raga.org

American singer and songwriter (b. Dec. 31, 1943, Roswell, N.M.--d. Oct. 12, 1997, Monterey Bay, Calif.), was identified by his wholesome, sentimental music that extolled nature's and life's simple pleasures. He began playing folk songs on the 1910 Gibson guitar that his grandmother gave him when he was 12. In the mid-1960s Denver moved to Los Angeles, where he adopted the name of the capital of Colorado, a state whose natural beauty he especially loved, and began performing with the Chad Mitchell Trio.

As a young man, he dropped out of college and moved to LA in hopes of getting a career in music. It was there that he changed his name to John Denver. In the middle 60's, John joined what was known as the "Mitchell Trio" and experienced a mild dose of success.

Leaving On A Jet Plane was the first of what became a 3 part series of songs John Denver wrote involving the Vietnam crisis, the others were "Follow Me" and "Goodbye Again". These songs brought about even more resistance from the public toward the Vietnam crisis. After writing the song, however, John Denver would still struggle along, but he would get his first shot at an album with "Rhymes And Reasons".

It was when Bill Danoff and John Denver came up with the song "Take Me Home, Country Roads" that his career really shot off. The song rose to #2 on the Billboard Pop chart and gave John Denver the national exposure he needed. Shortly after, he wrote the song "Rocky Mountain High" which besides becoming one of his many Gold Records, it launched his career similiarly to the way "Take Me Home, Country Roads" had done. Shortly after the successes of "Take Me Home, Country Roads" and "Rocky Mountain High" John Denver re-released a song he had written years earlier called "Sunshine On My Shoulders." This song turned gold and recieved much greater success then it had its first time around.

One of the amazing things about John Denver is the fact that he has peaked the Billboard Charts, Country Charts, and British Charts. His song "Back Home Again" became a #1 Country Hit, "Thank God I'm A Country Boy" became a #1 hit on the Billboard, and "Annie's Song" peaked at #1 in Britain and on the Billboard Chart. This song was inspired because John Denver was having marrital problems with his wife Ann Martrell.

In the Early 70's, Denver released the album "John Denver's Greatest Hits" which eventually sold an astonishing over 10,000,000 copies. John Denver was on top of the music world. One of John Denver's most beautiful songs was his duet with Placido Domingo in the song "Perhaps Love" which despite its lack of success, remains one of his fan's favorite songs.

. His first solo album, Rhymes and Reasons, was released that same year. In 1971 he recorded the million-selling single "Take Me Home, Country Roads," and that was followed by the evocative "Rocky Mountain High" (1972) and the smash hit "Sunshine on My Shoulders" (1974). Playing an acoustic guitar, Denver gained an international following with his clear tenor voice and homegrown lyrics.

Along with 14 gold and 8 platinum albums, he received honours ranging from poet laureate of Colorado (1974) to the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year (1975). Although Denver had reached his commercial peak in the mid-1970s, with such albums as Greatest Hits (1973), Back Home Again (1974), and Windsong (1975), he continued to record and perform, starring in a number of television specials and in the motion picture Oh, God! (1977). A tireless advocate for wildlife and land conservation,

Denver cofounded (1976) the Windstar Foundation, and his 20 years with UNICEF reflected his commitment to eradicating hunger and poverty. His wholesome image suffered in the 1990s, however, when he was twice arrested for drunk driving in Aspen, Colo., where he resided for many years. Although he was an experienced pilot trained by his father, an air force officer, Denver died when the handmade experimental airplane he was flying crashed off the coast of California.

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