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 slavery in 1833. In 1978, Dylan acknowledged the source when he told journalist Marc Rowland: "'Blowin' in the Wind' has always been a spiritual. I took it off a song called 'No More Auction Block' – that's a spiritual and 'Blowin' in the Wind' follows the same feeling." Dylan's performance of "No More Auction Block" was recorded at the Gaslight Cafe in October 1962, and appeared on "The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991". The critic Michael Gray suggested that the lyric is an example of Dylan's incorporation of Biblical rhetoric into his own style. A particular rhetorical