Bob Shane was the last surviving member of the Kingston Trio. He is on the right, playing guitar, in this clip of their most famous song:
As I noted in this post, the song was originally written by Bess Lomax Hawes (daughter of John, sister of Alan, and a member of the Almanac Singers with Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger) to support the socialist mayoral candidate Walter O'Brian, whose name was changed by the Kingston Trio in the final verse (and purged completely on some records).
More Kingston Trio after the jump.
Their first and biggest hit was "Tom Dooley," a murder ballad that takes the death of the victim far too lightly:
Pete Seeger wrote "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" in the mid-1950s. The Kingston Trio covered it, and had a hit in 1961. In a bit of irony, they believed it was a traditional song and claimed the copyright, which is something that Seeger himself had done routinely with others' music. Seeger notified the Kingston Trio and they released their claim without litigation.