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 version of the song also spent five weeks atop the easy listening chart. The critic Andy Gill wrote, Dylan performed the song for the first time on television in the UK in January 1963, when he appeared in the BBC television play "Madhouse on Castle Street". He also performed the song during his first national US television appearance, filmed in March 1963, a performance made available in 2005 on the DVD release of Martin Scorsese's PBS television documentary on Dylan, "No Direction Home". An allegation that the song was written by a high-school student named Lorre Wyatt and subsequently purchased