Born May 24, 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota, Robert Zimmerman would go on to change the world. He would dive into folk albums, change his name, and travel to New York City to become a professional musician. From there, he set the globe ablaze with songs that sounded as if they were 1,000 years old but were really brand new.
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Throughout the course of his career, Bob Dylan garnered four Top-10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. And here below we’d like to both explore those songs and rank them in order of what we think are the best to the worst. Of course, most of Dylan’s greatest song contributions were not hit pop singles, which perhaps is to be expected, but these four songs below actually were.
[RELATED: Remember When Dylan Went Electric – the Newport Folk Festival 1965]
4. “Lay, Lady, Lay” from Nashville Skyline (1969)
This song, which hit No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100, is perhaps example No. 1 when people talk about Bob Dylan’s mutable styles. The man couldn’t creatively sit still and so he was always trying new things, from folk to rock to religious music to trying to sound like Johnny Cash. And this song is evidence of the latter. At the time, the two men were even working together on recordings and Dylan brought that croon to this song’s recording. It’s a fine song, but not one of Dylan’s 20 best, most likely. Either way, on it he sings,
Lay, lady, lay
Lay across my big brass bed
Lay, lady, lay
Lay across my big brass bed
Whatever colors you have
In your mind
I’ll show them to you
And you’ll see them shine
Lay, lady, lay
Lay across my big brass bed
Stay, lady, stay
Stay with your man awhile
3. “Rainy Day Women Nos. 12 & 35” from Blonde on Blonde (1966)
This song, which hit No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, is an example of Dylan’s good sense of humor. Not only is the song recording silly with the performers seemingly told to pick up whatever random instrument was next to them and bang around on it, but the lyrics play on the word “stoned.” As Dylan sings, we all must get beaten by the world and we all must get high. He laughs into the microphone,
Well, they’ll stone you when you’re trying to be so good
They’ll stone you just like they said they would
They’ll stone you when you’re trying to go home
And they’ll stone you when you’re there all alone
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned
2. “Positively 4th Street” (Single, 1965)
There is no gimmick to this song, which hit No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. That is, other than incredible writing. The music is lovely too, with the organ crying out beneath Dylan’s observational poetry. On the track, Dylan decries various figures in his life, cutting them down to size. They aren’t as loyal, bright, or kind as they think. And he let’s them know it, singing,
You’ve got a lotta nerve to say you are my friend
When I was down you just stood there grinnin’
You’ve got a lotta nerve to say you got a helping hand to lend
You just want to be on the side that’s winnin’
You say I let you down, ya know its not like that
If you’re so hurt, why then don’t you show it?
You say you’ve lost your faith, but that’s not where its at
You have no faith to lose, and ya know it
1. “Like a Rolling Stone” from Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
This song, which hit No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, changed both Dylan’s life and the trajectory of modern rock and roll. For someone who came up a folk singer and who others said wrote protest songs, this song was a protest against that very label. Dylan moves, constantly. And so he knows what it means to be a rolling stone—or, one that gathers no moss. Here, he sings about the real world around him and seeing the realization in another’s eyes that they just saw the real world for themselves. Dylan belts,
Once upon a time you dressed so fine
Threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn’t you?
People call say ‘beware doll, you’re bound to fall’
You thought they were all kidding you
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hanging out
Now you don’t talk so loud
Now you don’t seem so proud
About having to be scrounging your next meal
How does it feel, how does it feel?
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone
Photo by Jay Dickman/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images
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