Like a Rolling Stone is Bob Dylan's 1965 single, a six-minute blast that radio had no category for.
Columbia released it on July 20, 1965, and it peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
It reached No. 1 on the Cash Box chart.
Rolling Stone magazine later ranked it the greatest song of all time.
Table of Contents
The Story Behind Like a Rolling Stone
From Pages of Verse to Four Verses
Dylan wrote the song after coming home exhausted from his spring 1965 tour of England.
In a 1966 CBC Radio interview he called it "this long piece of vomit."
Retellings put it at ten or twenty pages.
He cut it down to four verses and a chorus.
Dylan later described the result as "a rhythm thing on paper all about my steady hatred directed at some point that was honest."
In the end, he said, it was not hatred but "telling someone something they didn't know, telling them they were lucky."
Accounts of the writing say the three-chord progression came from Ritchie Valens' "La Bamba."
Who Is the Song About?
The lyrics address a once-privileged young woman who has lost her place in the world.
Listeners have suggested Edie Sedgwick, Joan Baez, Marianne Faithfull and Bob Neuwirth as targets.
None of those suggestions is confirmed.
Recording in Studio A
Producer Tom Wilson booked Columbia's Studio A at 799 Seventh Avenue in New York.
Dylan arrived on June 15, 1965, and cut five takes in a 3/4 waltz arrangement, with Dylan on piano.
The next day the band rebuilt it as a 4/4 rock song and recorded fifteen more takes.
The fourth take of June 16 became the master.
Who Played on the Track
- Bob Dylan, vocals, guitar and harmonica
- Mike Bloomfield, electric guitar
- Al Kooper, Hammond organ
- Paul Griffin, piano
- Joe Macho Jr., bass
- Bobby Gregg, drums
- Bruce Langhorne, tambourine
Al Kooper and the Organ
Al Kooper was 21, a session guitarist who had come to the studio as Wilson's guest.
Mike Bloomfield was already on guitar, so Kooper slipped over to the Hammond organ.
Wilson objected that Kooper was not an organ player.
Dylan insisted that the organ be turned up in the mix.
Kooper later said that was the moment he became an organ player.
Release and Chart Success
Columbia hesitated over the single.
Its length ran past six minutes, and its sound was raucous for the label's taste.
One account says new-releases coordinator Shaun Considine leaked an acetate to Arthur, a Manhattan discotheque, to build momentum.
The single came out on July 20, 1965, with "Gates of Eden" on the B-side.
Its peak of No. 2 on the Hot 100 left it just behind the Beatles' "Help!"
You can see where it sits among its rivals in our 1965 music year guide.
| Country / body | Chart or award | Result |
|---|---|---|
| United States | Billboard Hot 100 | No. 2 |
| United States | Cash Box Top 100 | No. 1 |
| United Kingdom | UK Singles Chart | No. 4 |
| United States | Grammy Hall of Fame | Inducted 1998 |
| Rolling Stone | 500 Greatest Songs (2004) | No. 1 |
| Rolling Stone | 500 Greatest Songs (2021) | No. 4 |
Newport and Highway 61 Revisited
Five days after release, Dylan played the song live for the first time at the Newport Folk Festival on July 25, 1965.
Part of the folk crowd objected to the electric guitars.
Highway 61 Revisited followed on August 30, 1965, and opened with the single.
His bitter follow-up single was Positively 4th Street.
The full arc of that turn is in our Bob Dylan biography.
Legacy
Rolling Stone ranked the song No. 1 on its 2004 list of the 500 greatest songs.
Jimi Hendrix played a version at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival.
In June 2014, Dylan's handwritten lyrics sold at Sotheby's for $2 million, a record for a popular music manuscript.
The song is a cornerstone of the Folk Rock genre hub and of the wider 60s rock story.
FAQ
Who wrote Like a Rolling Stone?
Bob Dylan wrote the song.
Tom Wilson produced the recording for Columbia Records.
When was this Dylan single released?
Columbia released the single on July 20, 1965, backed with "Gates of Eden."
It runs 6:13 and opens the album Highway 61 Revisited, released on August 30, 1965.
How high did the song chart?
It peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, behind the Beatles' "Help!"
It reached No. 1 on the Cash Box chart and No. 4 in the United Kingdom.
Who played the organ on the record?
Al Kooper, then a 21-year-old session guitarist, improvised the Hammond organ part.
Producer Tom Wilson doubted him, but Dylan asked for the organ to be turned up.
Who is the song about?
Dylan has never confirmed a subject.
Edie Sedgwick, Joan Baez, Marianne Faithfull and Bob Neuwirth are among the names people have suggested.
Six minutes of organ, snare and scorn rewrote what a single could be.
Wikipedia's entry on the song covers its recording and chart history in more depth.
Hear the track above and decide why Like a Rolling Stone still sounds so alive.