Long Before John Denver Got ‘Rocky Mountain High’ He Was a Member of a Folk Music Trio

John Denver is a music legend, both in pop and country music.

Oh, i know, when he was churning out hit after hit after hit, there was a lot of controversy about whether he was, well, really 'country'. Of course, compared to a lot of what's being called 'country' today, is there really any doubt? Go ahead and listen to 'Take Me Home Country Roads', 'Rocky Mountain High' or 'Thank God I'm A Country Boy'. I think you'd agree they're a lot more country than much of what you hear from some of the new 'country' artist's.

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But still, at the time, there was controversy. After all, John Denver was not a traditional country artist! And quite frankly, that was absolutely true.

The year was 1965, several years before the above mentioned classics and others topped the pop and country music charts. John Denver had just joined a folk music trio, the Chad Mitchell Trio...or more properly, the Mitchell Trio.

You see, John actually replaced Chad Mitchell in the group, but they kept the 'Mitchell' name. The group was well known, at least in the folk music world. But it wouldn't be until the 1970's that John would become one of the biggest musical star's in the world.

So just how 'folk' was this Mitchell Trio that featured a relatively unknown John Denver?

Well, most of us are familiar with a little English band called The Beatles. And one of their earliest hits 'She Loves You'? (Yeah, yeah, yeah!). But there's a pretty good chance you haven't heard the Mitchell Trio version!

So give a listen (and a look) at a very young John Denver and the boys give their folk spin to a rock classic. This is a snapshot in time of a young man that couldn't have imagined that less than a decade later he would be one of the biggest stars in the world.