Leaving on a Jet Plane

“Leaving on a Jet Plane” is a song written and recorded by singer-songwriter John Denver in 1966, originally included on his debut demo recording John Denver Sings as “Babe I Hate To Go”. He made several copies and gave them out as presents for Christmas of that year. Denver’s then producer Milt Okun convinced him to change the title and was renamed “Leaving on a Jet Plane” in 1967. In 1969, simultaneous to the success of the Peter, Paul and Mary version, Denver recorded the song again for his debut studio album, Rhymes & Reasons, and was released as a single in October 1969 through RCA Records. Although it is one of John Denver’s best known songs, his single failed to enter the charts. “Leaving on a Jet Plane” was re-recorded for the third and final time in 1973 for John Denver’s Greatest Hits, version that also appears on most of his compilation albums. John Denver, then a relatively unknown musician in the Los Angeles folk scene of 23 years old, had written the song during a layover at Washington Airport in 1966. In one of BBC Radio specials, Denver said about the song: This is a very personal and very special song for me. It doesn’t conjure up Boeing 707s or 747s for me as much as it does the simple scenes of leaving. Bags packed and standing by the front door, taxi pulling up in the early morning hours, the sound of a door closing behind you, and the thought of leaving someone that you care for very much. I was fortunate to have Peter, Paul and Mary record it and have it become a hit, but it still strikes a lonely and anguished chord in me, because the separation still continues, although not so long and not so often nowadays. Though not written about the Vietnam War, the Peter, Paul and Mary cover of the song was interpreted by at least one writer to be a protest song about a soldier leaving his partner, unsure if he would return