# 3 of the Best First No. 1 Hits in 60s Folk Music

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/3-of-the-best-first-no-1-hits-in-60s-folk-music/
- Published: 2026-08-13T23:00:00+00:00
- Original publisher: American Songwriter
- Original article: https://americansongwriter.com/3-of-the-best-first-no-1-hits-in-60s-folk-music/
- Topics: AI, Americas, Entertainment, Music, Technology, World

## Key points

- Three 1960s folk-pop songs became first number-one hits.
- Peter, Paul and Mary’s hit was written by John Denver.
- The Byrds topped the chart with Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man”.

## Summary

The article highlights three 1960s folk-pop songs that became their performers’ first Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles: Peter, Paul and Mary’s “Leaving On A Jet Plane”, The Mamas and the Papas’ “Monday, Monday”, and The Byrds’ “Mr. Tambourine Man”. It presents them as notable examples because folk music produced relatively few chart-topping singles, while each song helped define its artist’s commercial peak.

“Leaving On A Jet Plane”, written by John Denver at age 23, remains Peter, Paul and Mary’s biggest hit; Denver said its subject was simply the experience of departure rather than the Vietnam War. “Monday, Monday” was The Mamas and the Papas’ only Hot 100 number one, despite singer Denny Doherty initially dismissing it as an unremarkable song about a weekday. The Byrds’ debut single, “Mr. Tambourine Man”, was also their first number one; Bob Dylan wrote and recorded the song himself and later rejected suggestions that its imagery concerned drugs.

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