John Denver Dies in Plane Crash

Singer/songwriter John Denver, who wrote "Leaving on a Jet Plane," "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" and many other country-pop hits, died Sunday at the age of 53 when the plane he was flying went down in Monterey Bay.

Officials from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are still searching for answers about what might have made the single-engine craft go down. Meanwhile, the White House issued a statement paying tribute to the singer's "soaring music," which touched millions.

Though Denver's commercial fortunes have waned since the '70s, he was a best-selling artist in his prime. Fourteen of his albums have gone gold, signifying sales of 500,000 copies, and eight of them have gone platinum, signifying sales of a million copies. And though his laid-back music never caught on with critics, he had a string of hit singles that lasted through the decade including "Take Me Home, Country Roads," "Rocky Mountain High," "Annie's Song," and "Back Home Again."

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Song Stories

“(We're Not) The Jet Set”

George Jones and Tammy Wynette | 1973

George Jones and Tammy Wynette were still married when they recorded the tongue-in-cheek "(We're Not) The Jet Set." The lyrics, written by Nashville songwriter Bobby Braddock, who also penned Wynette's "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" and Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today," make fun of the good life by declaring, "We're not the Jet Set/We're the old Chevrolet set." Braddock recalled that while writing the song, he needed the name of a city that evened out the rhyme he had with "Riviera" and "Missourah." “I got out a Rand McNally atlas," he said. "In the first part are the maps. The last part is an alphabetical listing of cities. I wanted a rustic, small-time sound. I went to the listing for Missouri. And I found 'Festus.' I loved the sound of it."

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