An Early Puff
When tracking down that video last week of Peter, Paul and Mary singing "Blowing in the Wind," I came across a lovely, and simple version of "Puff the Magic Dragon." What's so affecting about it is that this video comes from 1965, only two years after it was written. So, this is the song performed at its most basic, long before it became a The Required Song at Peter, Paul and Mary concerts, far longer before it became one of the most iconic songs in American music history, and parents would bring their children to hear it -- or their grandchildren.
It does appear that the song was a hit by this point, but it's also before the song became SO famous and utterly beloved that Peter, Paul and Mary divided the performance up into solos for all three of them. This is just Peter Yarrow (who co-wrote the song with Leonard Lipton), with Paul and Marry doing the background chorus. (I'm not saying one version is better than the other, just that this is the original way it was done.)
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