John Denver
Henry John Deutschendorf Jr., known professionally as John Denver, was an American country and folk singer, songwriter, and actor. He was one of the most popular acoustic artists of the 1970s and one of the best-selling artists overall in that decade. AllMusic has called Denver "among the most beloved entertainers of his era".
Denver recorded and released approximately 300 songs, about 200 of which he wrote himself. He released 33 albums and singles that were certified gold and platinum in the U.S., with estimated sales of more than 33 million copies. He recorded and performed primarily with an acoustic guitar and sang about his joy in nature, disdain for city life, enthusiasm for music, and relationships. Denver's music appeared on a variety of charts, including country music, the Billboard Hot 100, and adult contemporary, earning 12 gold and four platinum albums with his signature songs "Take Me Home, Country Roads"; "Poems, Prayers & Promises"; "Annie's Song"; "Rocky Mountain High"; "Calypso"; "Thank God I'm a Country Boy"; and "Sunshine on My Shoulders".
Denver appeared in several films and television specials during the 1970s and 1980s, including the 1977 hit Oh, God!, in which he starred alongside George Burns. He continued to record into the 1990s, also focusing on environmental issues as well as lending vocal support to space exploration and testifying in front of Congress to protest censorship in music. Known for his love of Colorado, Denver lived in Aspen for much of his life. In 1974, Denver was named poet laureate of the state. The Colorado state legislature also adopted "Rocky Mountain High" as one of its two state songs in 2007, and West Virginia did the same for "Take Me Home, Country Roads" in 2014. An avid pilot, Denver died at the age of 53 in 1997, in a single-fatality crash while piloting a recently purchased light plane.
Early life
Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. was born on December 31, 1943, in Roswell, New Mexico, to Erma Louise and Captain Henry John "Dutch" Deutschendorf Sr., a United States Army Air Forces pilot stationed at Roswell Army Air Field. Captain Deutschendorf Sr. was a decorated pilot who set a number of air speed records in a Convair B-58 Hustler in 1961.In his 1994 autobiography Take Me Home, Denver described his father as a stern man who could not show his love for his children. With a military father, Denver's family moved often, and he found difficulty making friends and assimilating with children of his own age. The introverted Denver often felt out of place and did not know where he truly belonged. While stationed at Davis–Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona, the Deutschendorfs purchased a house and lived there from 1951 to 1959. Denver lived in Tucson from ages 6 to 14.
During these years, Denver attended Mansfeld Junior High School and was a member of the Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus for two years. He was content in Tucson, but his father was transferred to Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. The family later moved to Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas, where Denver graduated from Arlington Heights High School. Denver was distressed with life in Fort Worth, and in his junior year of high school he drove his father's car to California to visit family friends and begin his music career. His father flew to California in a friend's jet to retrieve him, and Denver reluctantly returned to Texas to complete his schooling.
Career
Early career
At age 11, Denver received an acoustic guitar from his grandmother. He learned to play well enough to perform at local clubs by the time he was in college. Denver decided to change his name when Randy Sparks, founder of the New Christy Minstrels, suggested that "Deutschendorf" would not fit comfortably on a marquee. Denver attended Texas Tech University in Lubbock and sang in a folk-music group, "The Alpine Trio", while studying architecture. He was also a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity. Denver dropped out of Texas Tech in 1963 and moved to Los Angeles, where he sang in folk clubs. In 1965, Denver joined The Chad Mitchell Trio, replacing founder Chad Mitchell. After more personnel changes, the trio later became known as "Denver, Boise, and Johnson", with whom he appeared at the Philadelphia Folk Festival in 1968, then alone in 1969 and 1970.In 1969, Denver abandoned band life to pursue a solo career and released his first album for RCA Records, Rhymes & Reasons. Two years earlier, he had made a self-produced demo recording of some of the songs he played at his concerts. It included a song Denver had written called "Babe, I Hate to Go", later renamed "Leaving on a Jet Plane". He made several copies and gave them out as Christmas presents. Milt Okun, who produced records for The Chad Mitchell Trio and folk group Peter, Paul and Mary, had become Denver's producer as well. Okun brought the unreleased "Jet Plane" song to Peter, Paul and Mary. Their rendition hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Denver's song also made it to number 2 in the UK in February 1970, having also made number 1 on the US Cash Box chart in December 1969.
RCA did not actively promote Rhymes & Reasons with a series of live appearances, but Denver embarked on an impromptu supporting tour throughout the Midwest, stopping at towns and cities, offering to play free concerts at local venues. When he was successful in persuading a school, college, American Legion hall, or coffeehouse to let him perform, Denver distributed posters in the town and usually showed up at the local radio station, guitar in hand, offering himself for an interview. As the writer of "Leaving on a Jet Plane", Denver was often successful in gaining some promotional airtime, usually performing one or two songs live. Some venues let him play for the 'door'; others restricted him to selling copies of the album at intermission and after the show. After several months of this, Denver had built a solid fan base, many of whom remained loyal throughout his career.
Denver recorded two more albums in 1970, Take Me to Tomorrow and Whose Garden Was This, including a mix of songs he had written and covers of other writers' compositions.
Career peak
Denver's next album, Poems, Prayers & Promises, was a breakthrough for him in the United States, thanks in part to the single "Take Me Home, Country Roads", which went to number 2 on the Billboard charts despite the first pressings of the track being distorted. Its success was due in part to the efforts of his new manager, future Hollywood producer Jerry Weintraub, who signed Denver in 1970. Weintraub insisted on a reissue of the track and began a radio airplay campaign that started in Denver, Colorado. Denver's career flourished thereafter, and he had a series of hits over the next four years. In 1972, Denver had his first Top Ten album with Rocky Mountain High, with its title track reaching the Top Ten in 1973. In 1974 and 1975, Denver had a string of four number 1 songs and three number 1 albums.In the 1970s, Denver's onstage appearance included long blond hair and wire-rimmed "granny" glasses. His embroidered shirts with images commonly associated with the American West were created by the designer and appliqué artist Anna Zapp. Weintraub insisted on a significant number of television appearances, including a series of half-hour shows in the United Kingdom, despite Denver's protests at the time, "I've had no success in Britain ... I mean none". In December 1976, Weintraub told Maureen Orth of Newsweek: "I knew the critics would never go for John. I had to get him to the people."
After appearing as a guest on many shows, Denver hosted his own variety and music specials, including several concerts from Red Rocks Amphitheatre. His seasonal special Rocky Mountain Christmas was watched by more than 60 million people and was the highest-rated show for the ABC network at that time. In 1973, Denver starred in his own BBC television series, The John Denver Show, a weekly music and variety show directed and produced by Stanley Dorfman.
Denver's live concert special An Evening with John Denver won the 1974–1975 Emmy Award for Outstanding Special, Comedy-Variety or Music. When Denver ended his business relationship in 1982 because of Weintraub's focus on other projects, Weintraub threw Denver out of his office and accused him of Nazism. Denver later told Arthur Tobier when the latter edited his autobiography, "I'd bend my principles to support something he wanted of me. And of course, every time you bend your principles—whether because you don't want to worry about it, or because you're afraid to stand up for fear of what you might lose—you sell your soul to the devil."
Denver was also a guest star on The Muppet Show, the beginning of the lifelong friendship between Denver and Jim Henson that spawned two television specials with the Muppets, A Christmas Together and Rocky Mountain Holiday. He also tried acting, appearing in "The Camerons are a Special Clan" episode of the Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law television series in October 1973 and "The Colorado Cattle Caper" episode of the McCloud television series in February 1974. In 1977, Denver starred in the hit comedy film Oh, God! opposite George Burns. He also hosted the Grammy Awards five times in the 1970s and 1980s and guest-hosted The Tonight Show on several occasions.
In 1975, Denver was awarded the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year award. At the ceremony, outgoing Entertainer of the Year Charlie Rich presented the award to his successor after he set fire to the slip of paper containing the official notification of the award. Some speculated Rich was protesting the selection of a non-traditional country artist for the award, but Rich's son disputes that, saying his father was drunk, taking pain medication for a broken foot and just trying to be funny.
In 1977, Denver co-founded The Hunger Project with Werner Erhard and Robert W. Fuller. He served for many years and supported the organization until his death. President Jimmy Carter appointed Denver to serve on the President's Commission on World Hunger. Denver wrote the song "I Want to Live" as the commission's theme song. In 1979, Denver performed "Rhymes & Reasons" at the Music for UNICEF Concert. Royalties from the concert performances were donated to UNICEF.
Denver and his father made up in the mid-1970s, in part because his father taught him how to fly a plane. In 1980, the two co-hosted an award-winning television special, The Higher We Fly: The History of Flight.