John Denver recorded his demo of ‘Babe, I Hate to Go’ in 1966, but the song got its first proper release a year later as ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane’ by Peter, Paul and Mary, appearing on their eighth album, titled Album 1700.
The trio released the song as a single two years later and wound up with their first (and only) #1 Billboard hit. For many people, this is the version of the song they know best.
Initially, I planned to follow up last week’s Neil Diamond appreciation with a similar dive into the work of John Denver. There’s a sentence I never thought I’d write.
I realized quickly that I’ve already featured most of my favorite John Denver songs, including ‘Annie’s Song,’ ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads‘ and ‘Rocky Mountain High.’
And after some digging, I realized I dislike pretty much everything else the man has recorded. So there’s that.
Another favorite movie music moment from 2017 is from Bong Joon-ho’s Okja, and it’s the second example this week to feature a John Denver song.
In fact, by coincidence or cosmic fate, John Denver’s songs were featured in no fewer than five films last year, including the Kingsman and Alien sequels and the crime film Free Fire.
Continuing my pattern of looking back at 2017 well into 2018, this week I’ll highlight five of my favorite musical moments from last year’s movies.
Two of these picks are performed by characters in the films, one is played through headphones by a character in the film, one is a song used as score and the last is a traditional instrumental score (and a bit of a cheat, as I’ll explain when I get there).
Where possible, I’ll embed a clip of the actual scene as well as the original song.
Meet Me In Montauk 