Blowin' in the Wind both Dylan and Peter, Paul and Mary, brought the trio the song which they promptly recorded (on a single take) and released. The trio's version, which was the title track of their third album, peaked at number 2 on the "Billboard" charts. The group's version also went to number one on the Middle-Road charts for five weeks. "How many words can be written on a page, before they begin to bleed? How many books can one man own, before he has learned to read? How many meanings can he give to a phrase, before, from his lexicon he's freed?" Blowin'
Blowin' in the Wind album "From Every Stage". In 1975, the song was included as poetry in a high-school English textbook in Sri Lanka. The textbook caused controversy because it replaced Shakespeare's work with Dylan's. During the protests against the Iraq War, commentators noted that protesters were resurrecting songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" rather than creating new ones. The song has been embraced by many liberal churches, and in the 1960s and 1970s it was sung both in Catholic church "folk masses" and as a hymn in Protestant ones. In 1997, Bob Dylan performed three other songs at a Catholic church congress.