John Denver

One of America's most popular acoustic artists of the 1970s, John Denver crossed over between folk and country music with great hits including "Leaving on a Jet Plane" (1967), "Take Me Home, Country Roads" (1971), "Rocky Mountain High" (1972), "Sunshine on My Shoulders" (1973), "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" (1974), "Annie's Song" (1974), and "Calypso" (1975). Denver was an outspoken political activist, humanitarian and environmentalist before his untimely death in 1997 in a plane crash.