After recording mostly conventional folk songs, the trio released the then-daring satire "The John Birch Society" ("Fighting for the right to fight/The right fight for the Right!"), which established their ability to perform more controversial material. Their departure from Belafonte Enterprises in 1962, followed by their move to Mercury Records in 1963, gave them more freedom to add aggressively political songs to their body of folk, love, and world-music songs. They appeared on a variety of American TV shows, including "The Bell Telephone Hour" and "Hootenanny".