Manhattan, New York City, New York, U. American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the ghosthorse wine, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead Belly’s “Goodnight, Irene”, which topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950. A prolific songwriter, his best-known songs include “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?
Introduction of the “Steel Pan” to U. Seeger was born on May 3, 1919, at the French Hospital, Midtown Manhattan. Seeger’s father, the Harvard-trained composer and musicologist Charles Louis Seeger, Jr. Mexico City, Mexico, to American parents. Charles established the first musicology curriculum in the U.
In 1912, his father, Charles Seeger, was hired to establish the music department at the University of California, Berkeley, but was forced to resign in 1918 because of his outspoken pacifism during World War I. Charles and Constance divorced when Pete was seven and in 1932 Charles married his composition student and assistant, Ruth Crawford, now considered by many to be one of the most important modernist composers of the 20th century. At four, Seeger was sent away to boarding school, but came home two years later when his parents learned the school had failed to inform them he had contracted scarlet fever. For the Seegers, experiencing the beauty of this music firsthand was a “conversion experience.