Chad Mitchell

The Chad Mitchell Trio, later known as The Mitchell Trio, were an American vocal group whose peak years were during the 1960s. They performed traditional folk songs and some of John Denver's early compositions. They were particularly notable for performing satirical songs that criticized current events during the time of the Cold War, the civil rights movement, and the Vietnam War.

The original group was formed in 1958 by William Chadbourne "Chad" Mitchell (from Portland, Oregon, born December 5, 1936), Mike Kobluk (from Trail, British Columbia, Canada, born December 10, 1937), and Mike Pugh (from Pasco, Washington) when they were students and glee club members at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, United States. They were encouraged by Spokane Catholic priest Reinard W. Beaver, who invited the three to travel with him to New York City in the summer of 1959 and to try performing in the burgeoning folk-music scene.

The key people who helped the trio were musical arranger Milton Okun and star performer/singer Harry Belafonte. Okun provided a professional polish to their performing skills, which helped them gain both a key booking at New York City's Blue Angel club and radio appearances with Arthur Godfrey and television appearances with Pat Boone. Belafonte featured the group in his May 1960 Carnegie Hall concert and signed them to his Belafonte Enterprises management firm.

In the summer of 1960, Pugh left the group to return to college. After auditioning over 150 singers, the group chose Joe Frazier (born in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, on January 14, 1937) to replace Pugh.

After recording mostly conventional folk songs, the trio released a then-daring satire of the John Birch Society, which established their ability to perform more controversial material. Their departure from Belafonte Enterprises in 1962, followed by their move to Mercury Records in 1963, gave them more freedom to add aggressively political songs to their body of folk, love, and world-music songs. They appeared on a variety of American TV shows, including The Bell Telephone Hour and Hootenanny.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.