The son of a US Air Force pilot, John Denver was born Henry John Deutschendorf on 31 December 1943 and raised all over the US before getting into music while at college in Texas.
After working for four years in the Chad Mitchell Trio, he signed with RCA in 1969.
His first album, Rhymes and Reasons (1969) contained the song Leaving On A Jet Plane which became a million-seller for Peter, Paul and Mary.
Denver’s hit single Take Me Home Country Roads (1971) established his soft singing style.
Dedicated to his wife, Ann Martell, Denver wrote Annie’s Song (1974) in ten minutes on a skiing holiday in Switzerland while the couple were undergoing a trial separation.
The song helped heal a temporary rift in their marriage but, unfortunately, the couple divorced in 1983.
Denver was arrested in 1993 for drunk driving in his hometown of Aspen, Colorado. He was caught committing the same offence a year later.
He died in a plane crash on 12 October 1997.
Related Posts
Kansas Kansas started out as a bar band playing cover versions of contemporary songs and soul oldies in the American state…
Ann Peebles One of the greatest female singers of Southern soul music, Ann Peebles grew up singing gospel in her father's Baptist…
Smith Smith formed in Los Angeles in 1969 and were discovered by 1960s rocker Del Shannon in a nightclub there. Shannon…
Carly Simon Carly Simon is the daughter of Richard L Simon, the co-founder of one of the largest American publishing companies, Simon…
Jamie Redfern Over a three year period during the early 1970s, Australian child star Jamie Redfern scored four Top 40 hit singles…
Johnny Mathis Johnny Mathis was born in September 1935 in Gilmer, Texas, and grew up in San Francisco. The son of a…
Jilted John Jilted John was a character invented by Graham Fellows, a 19-year-old from Sheffield, while he was studying at drama school…
Kevin Ayers Founder member of Soft Machine and sometime member of Gong, Kevin Ayers' career is a snapshot of the English underground across four decades.…
