Blowin' in the Wind Trio, but their record company delayed release of the album containing it because the song included the word "death", so the trio lost out to Peter, Paul and Mary, who were represented by Dylan's manager, Albert Grossman. The single sold a phenomenal 300,000 copies in the first week of release and made the song world-famous. On August 17, 1963, it reached number two on the "Billboard" pop chart, with sales exceeding one million copies. Peter Yarrow recalled that, when he told Dylan he would make more than $5,000 () from the publishing rights, Dylan was speechless. Peter, Paul and Mary's
Blowin' in the Wind the verses in proper order. The song was published for the first time in May 1962, in the sixth issue of "Broadside", the magazine founded by Pete Seeger and devoted to topical songs. The theme may have been taken from a passage in Woody Guthrie's autobiography, "Bound for Glory", in which Guthrie compared his political sensibility to newspapers blowing in the winds of New York City streets and alleys. Dylan was certainly familiar with Guthrie's work; his reading of it had been a major turning point in his intellectual and political development. In June 1962, the song was published in