Protest songs in the United States Tom Paxton ("Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation" - about the escalation of the war in Vietnam, "Jimmy Newman" – the story of a dying soldier, and "My Son John" – about a soldier who returns from war unable to describe what he's been through), among others. The first protest song to reach number one in the United States was P.F. Sloan's "Eve Of Destruction", performed by Barry McGuire in 1965. The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s often used Negro spirituals as a source of protest, changing the religious lyrics to suit the political mood of the time.
Eve of Destruction (song) an updated version of "Eve of Destruction", with new lines such as "You're old enough to kill/you just started voting" and "...can live for ten years in space". The reference to "Red China" was also removed, and in its place were the more generic "Now think of all the hate, still living inside us/it's never too late, to let love guide us". In the first week of its release, the single was at #103 on the "Billboard" charts. By August 12 Dunhill released the LP, "Eve of Destruction". It reached its peak of #37 on the Billboard album chart during