Denver, John (1943–1997)

US singer-songwriter. His heyday was the 1970s, in a musical career built on the folk era of the 1960s. As a solo artist in the 1970s, Denver's floppy-haired cowboy image propelled him to fame with songs like ‘Take Me Home Country Roads’ (1971) and ‘Rocky Mountain High’ (1972). However, it was ‘Annie's Song’ (1974) that brought him international acclaim; it reached number one in the UK top ten and stayed in the charts for 13 weeks.

By the mid-1970s Denver had reached his international peak in terms of record sales – he had eight top-ten hits in the USA – and many other artists had made cover versions of his songs. As his recording career began to wane in the 1980s, he turned his attention to environmental and humanitarian causes, having set up his own environmental group, the Windstar Foundation, in 1976, to promote education and research on environmental issues. Denver also had a lifelong passion for flying; he died at the controls of his own plane in Monterey Bay, California.

Before his solo success, having missed the opportunity of joining a more progressive and innovative group, The Byrds, Denver auditioned for the Chad Mitchell Trio, and toured with them for four years. In 1967 the group recorded one of Denver's most enduring songs, ‘Leavin' on a Jet Plane’, which in 1969 became a huge hit for the popular folk trio Peter, Paul, and Mary.