In 1969, folk group Peter, Paul and Mary's version hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100, their most successful single.

"Leaving on a Jet Plane" was re-recorded for the third and final time in 1973 for John Denver's Greatest Hits, the version that also appears on most of his compilation albums.

[4] John Denver, then a relatively unknown 23-year old musician in the Los Angeles folk scene, wrote the song during a layover at Washington National Airport in 1966.

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.

It was the penultimate #1 single of the 1960s, and the song also spent three weeks atop the easy listening chart[10] and was used in commercials for United Airlines in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The band's single "Run 2" (1989) was the subject of a lawsuit brought by Denver, who argued that its wordless guitar break was based on his "Leaving on a Jet Plane".