[6] But they abandoned that name at the advice of their manager, Ken Greengrass and then chose The Highwaymen which was based on a romantic narrative by English poet Alfred Noyes.
[12] In 1959, United Artists released a recording of the Highwaymen's version under the abbreviated title of "Michael," which slowly gained popularity and eventually reached #1 on the U.S.
In 1967, Dave Fisher moved to Hollywood where he composed and arranged music for films and television and worked as a studio singer and musician.
"[18] Chan Daniels studied acting for several years in New York and Hollywood and later graduated from Harvard Business School and became an executive for Capitol Records.
[20] Steve Trott, after graduating from Harvard Law, became a prosecutor in the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office.
From that time until the death of Dave Fisher in 2010, the original band recorded several albums and performed a dozen or so concerts a year.
In 1990, the members of the original group sued country music's Highwaymen, made up of Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson over their use of the name, which was inspired by a Jimmy Webb ballad they had recorded.
The rock and roll magazine Blitz described the Highwaymen's record of their 1963 concert at Massachusetts Institute of Technology as the best compilation or reissue of 2009.
Aside from two major hit singles and several appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, the group contributed two future standards to the folk repertoire, "All My Trials", "Big Rock Candy Mountain", and played the central role in uncovering "Cotton Fields", a long-overlooked song by Lead Belly, which subsequently became a major addition to the repertoires of both the Beach Boys and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
[30] Dave Fisher (July 19, 1940 – May 7, 2010)[3] Bob Burnett (February 7, 1940, Providence, Rhode Island – December 7, 2011)[18] Steve Butts Chan Daniels (died August 2, 1975, aged 36) Steve Trott (born Stephen S. Trott, December 12, 1939, Glen Ridge, New Jersey)[31] Gil Robbins (born Gilbert Lee Robbins, April 3, 1931, Spokane, Washington – April 5, 2011).