Day Is Done (Peter, Paul and Mary song)

"Day Is Done"
Single by Peter, Paul and Mary
from the album Peter, Paul and Mommy
B-side	"Make Believe Town"
Released	April 1969[1]
Format	Vinyl single
Genre	Folk pop
Length	3:16
Label	Warner Bros.-Seven Arts
Writer(s)	Peter Yarrow
Peter, Paul and Mary singles chronology
"Love City (Postcard from Duluth)" (1968) "Day Is Done" (1969) "Leaving on a Jet Plane" (1969)

"Day Is Done" is a song written by Peter Yarrow. It was recorded by Yarrow's group Peter, Paul and Mary and released as a single in 1969. The song reached No. 21 on Billboard Hot 100, and was ranked No. 48 on the Billboard year-end Top Easy Listening Singles chart of 1979.^[2]

Background

"Day Is Done" was written by Peter Yarrow in 1968, and it was the last single that Peter, Paul and Mary recorded together as a group (their last single actually released "Leaving on a Jet Plane" was recorded earlier for Album 1700 from 1967).^[3] The song was written as an anti-war song during the Vietnam War era,^[4] and Yarrow performed it as the opening song at a concert during the anti-war march he helped organized in Washington in November 1969.^[5][6] It became one of the well-known protest songs in the era.^[7] According to Yarrow, the message of the song is that "children will lead us to a better world".^[8]

Yarrow later released a children book based on the lyrics of the song as part of his Songbook Series.^[9] It contains a three-song CD with a version of the song he recorded with his daughter Bethany.^[10]

Charts

Chart (1969)	Peak position
Canada Adult Contemporary (RPM)[11]	5
Canada Top Singles (RPM)[12]	17
US Adult Contemporary (Billboard)[13]	7
US Billboard Hot 100[14]	21

References

1. "Peter, Paul And Mary – Day Is Done". 45cat.
2. "Top Records of 1969". Billboard. December 27, 1969.
3. Amy Willis (September 17, 2009). "Peter, Paul and Mary: Career timeline". The Daily Telegraph.
4. "Peter Yarrow - Day Is Done". Politics and Prose. October 2, 2009.
5. "Puff: Still Not a Drug Song". Chronogram.
6. "How classical music reached half a million young people". On An Overgrown Path.
7. "Protest Songs". Traditional Music Library.
8. Lisa Torem (February 13, 2010). "Interview with Peter Yarrow". Penny Black Music.
9. "Peter Yarrow - Day Is Done". Politics and Prose.
10. Sonya Ellingboe (October 2, 2009). "Take my hand when day is done". Centennial Citizen.
11. "Top RPM Adult Contemporary: Issue 5922." RPM. Library and Archives Canada.
12. "Top RPM Singles: Issue 6026." RPM. Library and Archives Canada.
13. "Peter, Paul and Mary – Chart history" Billboard Adult Contemporary for Peter, Paul and Mary.
14. "Peter, Paul and Mary – Chart history" Billboard Hot 100 for Peter, Paul and Mary.

External links

Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics