Pete Seeger Born May 3rd 1919 Happy Birthday

Many Singaporeans in the 60s grew up with Seeger's music and as just many can sing his songs, all classics now. Peter "Pete" Seeger, born in 1919 in Manhattan, New York is an American folk singer, and a key figure in the mid-20th century American Folk Singing Music Revival.

He also had a string of hit records during the early 50s as a member of The Weavers, most notably the 1950 recording of "Goodnight Irene". In the 60s, he returned to the public scene as a pioneer of protest music supporting international disarmament and civil rights. Lately, he became known as an activist for environmental causes.

As a song writer, he is best known as the author or co-author of "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?", "If I Had A Hammer," and "Turn, Turn, Turn," which have been recorded by many artists both in and outside the folk revival movement and are still sung throughout the world. "Flowers" was a hit recording for The Kingston Trio (1962, check posting on Kingston Trio), Marlene Dietrich (sexy French actress and singer who recorded it in English, German and French (1962), and Johnny Rivers (1965).

"If I Had a Hammer" was a hit for Peter, Paul & Mary (1962) and Trini Lopez (1963), while The Byrds and Judy Collins popularized "Turn, Turn, Turn!" in the mid-1960s and 1964 respectively. Seeger was one of the folksingers most responsible for popularizing the spiritual "We Shall Overcome" (Joan Baez).

The Weavers' string of major hits began with "On top of Old Smokey" and an arrangement of the waltz, "Goodnight, Irene", which topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950 and was covered by many other pop singers. Other Weaver hits included, "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine", the South African Zulu song, "Wimoweth" (featured in, "The Lion King") to name a few.

On May 3, 2009, dozens of musicians will gather in New York at Madison Square Garden to celebrate Seeger's 90th birthday. The proceeds will benefit a charity to his advocacy for environmental concerns. Another celebration will continue at The College of Staten Island on May 4th.

Reference: (1) Wikipedia and other sources. (2) Pete Seeger's Appreciation Websites.

Original article: Andy Lim.