The 30 Best Bob Dylan Songs, from the Folk Years to Murder Most Foul

What is Bob Dylan's most famous song?

"Like a Rolling Stone" is Bob Dylan's most famous song, a six-minute 1965 single that Rolling Stone magazine named the greatest song of all time. "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" are his best-known protest songs, and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and "Make You Feel My Love" are among his most covered.

Bob Dylan's folk and protest songs

1. "Blowin' in the Wind", 1963: the anthem that made his name, a hit for Peter, Paul and Mary.
2. "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall", 1963: a sweeping, apocalyptic ballad.
3. "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right", 1963: a bittersweet breakup song.
4. "Masters of War", 1963: a fierce anti-war song.
5. "Girl from the North Country", 1963: a tender love song he later sang with Johnny Cash.
6. "The Times They Are a-Changin'", 1964: an anthem of the civil rights era.
7. "It Ain't Me Babe", 1964: a wry farewell, later a hit for The Turtles.

Bob Dylan's electric breakthrough

8. "Mr. Tambourine Man", 1965: a dreamy song The Byrds took to number one.
9. "Subterranean Homesick Blues", 1965: a rapid-fire rocker with a famous cue-card video.
10. "Like a Rolling Stone", 1965: the song that changed rock music.
11. "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue", 1965: a haunting farewell.
12. "Desolation Row", 1965: an 11-minute surreal epic.
13. "Positively 4th Street", 1965: a cutting single.
14. "Just Like a Woman", 1966: a delicate ballad from Blonde on Blonde.
15. "Visions of Johanna", 1966: often named one of his finest lyrics.

Bob Dylan songs of the late 60s and 70s

16. "All Along the Watchtower", 1967: transformed by Jimi Hendrix a year later.
17. "I Shall Be Released", 1967: a hymn-like song famously recorded by The Band.
18. "Lay Lady Lay", 1969: a smooth, country-tinged hit.
19. "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", 1973: written for the film Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.
20. "Forever Young", 1974: a blessing he wrote for his children.
21. "Tangled Up in Blue", 1975: the opener of Blood on the Tracks.
22. "Simple Twist of Fate", 1975: a tender story of a missed connection.
23. "Shelter from the Storm", 1975: a gentle song of refuge.
24. "Hurricane", 1975: a protest song about the boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter.

Bob Dylan's later songs

25. "Gotta Serve Somebody", 1979: a Grammy-winning song from his gospel period.
26. "Every Grain of Sand", 1981: a quiet, spiritual masterpiece.
27. "Jokerman", 1983: a mysterious, reggae-tinged single.
28. "Not Dark Yet", 1997: a reflective song about aging from Time Out of Mind.
29. "Make You Feel My Love", 1997: a love song later made famous by Adele.
30. "Things Have Changed", 2000: an Oscar winner from the film Wonder Boys.

Who is Bob Dylan?

Bob Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman in 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota, and grew up in Hibbing, in the state's Iron Range. He moved to New York in 1961, played the Greenwich Village folk clubs and quickly became the voice of a generation of protest singers. In 1965 he shocked folk fans by playing an electric set at the Newport Folk Festival, and his mid-60s albums redefined rock lyrics. He has released dozens of albums since, won an Academy Award, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012 and, in 2016, became the first songwriter to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

The story behind Like a Rolling Stone

Dylan said "Like a Rolling Stone" grew out of a long piece of writing he produced after returning exhausted from a tour of England in 1965. The six-minute single, with Al Kooper's swirling organ, broke the rule that radio hits had to be short, reached number two in America and showed that rock songs could carry poetry. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine named it the greatest song of all time.

Newport 1965: Dylan goes electric

At the Newport Folk Festival in July 1965, Dylan took the stage with an electric band and played a loud, short set. Some folk fans booed, feeling he had abandoned the protest movement, but the moment opened the door to folk rock and is remembered as a turning point in music history. The 2024 film A Complete Unknown, with Timothée Chalamet as Dylan, retold the story for a new generation.

Famous covers of Bob Dylan songs

Few songwriters have been covered as often. Jimi Hendrix's 1968 "All Along the Watchtower" was so powerful that Dylan came to play the song in Hendrix's style. The Byrds' "Mr. Tambourine Man" topped the chart in 1965 and launched folk rock, Peter, Paul and Mary and later Stevie Wonder had hits with "Blowin' in the Wind", and Eric Clapton and Guns N' Roses both recorded "Knockin' on Heaven's Door". "Make You Feel My Love" was recorded by Billy Joel and Garth Brooks before Adele made it a modern standard, and "Wagon Wheel", built by Old Crow Medicine Show on an unfinished Dylan sketch, became a country hit for Darius Rucker.

Bob Dylan songs for a wedding

"Make You Feel My Love" is one of the most popular first dances of the past two decades, and "Lay Lady Lay", "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" and "Girl from the North Country" are lovely alternatives for a folk-loving couple. See our first dance songs for more.

Bob Dylan songs for a graduation or a memorial

"Forever Young" is a moving choice for a graduation or a parent's blessing, and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" suits a commencement slideshow. For a celebration of life, "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", "Shelter from the Storm" and "Every Grain of Sand" are often chosen. See our graduation songs and memorial service songs.

More songwriters of the era

For more from the 60s and 70s, see our Crosby, Stills and Nash songs, George Harrison songs and songs about peace.

A folk song about your story

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