My favorite folk group is Peter, Paul and Mary. They were part of the Folk Revival in the 1960's and are still making music today. "If I Had a Hammer" was the second song they released and became a worldwide hit. It was written by Pete Seeger (the father of American Folk music) who had already recorded it with his band The Weavers a few years earlier. The Weavers' version, however, wasn't nearly as popular as Peter, Paul and Mary's version was. This may have been because Seeger wrote it to support the Communist Movement in the US, and as you may know, Communism wasn't very popular at that time.
While the song wasn't at all popular in 1949 when it was first released by the Weavers, it did become a top ten hit when Peter, Paul and Mary brought their version of the song to the public. The song became the Civil Rights Anthem of the Civil Rights Movement and won two Grammy's. Watch the video below to listen to the song. You will see Peter Seeger's at the beginning of the video giving his opinion on Peter, Paul, and Mary's version. I completely agree with him when he says that their version of the song was much better than his.
Peter, Paul and Mary - "If I Had a Hammer"
Listen to the original version here:
The Weavers - "If I Had a Hammer"
