Garth Brooks wasn’t looking to cut a Bob Dylan song—but when actor Forrest Whitaker called and asked him to record one for the Hope Floats soundtrack, he ultimately said yes. The result? “To Make You Feel My Love,” a tender ballad that anchored the film’s emotional core—and topped the country charts.
Brooks‘ version of “To Make You Feel My Love” is the first song on the Hope Floats soundtrack. His wife, Trisha Yearwood, also covered the song for the movie. Her version is the last song on the soundtrack, and Brooks included “To Make You Feel My Love” as a bonus track on Fresh Horses in his first Limited Series boxed set.
Brooks’ version of “To Make You Feel My Love” went No. 1 on the country radio airplay charts 27 years ago today – on Aug. 1, 1998.
“Nobody around me listened to Bob Dylan,” Clarkson told Brooks when he appeared on her “The Kelly Clarkson Show.” “But I sure as (expletive)knew your version. I thought it was a Garth Brooks song, like, until I was 20.”
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Garth Brooks Didn’t Want to Do a Cover—But it was Dylan
Bob Dylan wrote and recorded “To Make You Feel My Love” for his 1997 album Time Out of Mind.
Lyrics include: When the evening shadows and the stars appear/ And there is no one there to dry your tears/ I could hold you for a million years/ To make you feel my love
“You’re the coolest luckiest guy if you get to do Dylan’s stuff, man,” Brooks said in concert in an undated video. “This guy is a genius. If you haven’t figured it out, I’m going to try to BS my way all night long, but Dylan is gonna shoot you straight from his heart to yours.”
Unfortunately, when Brooks first heard Dylan’s version of the song, he couldn’t understand what Dylan was saying. Brooks received a plain silver CD with Dylan’s name scribbled across the front in the mail and slid it into the player. Dylan isn’t known for his annunciation, and Brooks started getting nervous. He searched for lyrics and couldn’t find them. He bought all the Dylan CDs he could find and then tried to match the noises he heard Dylan make to the lyrics in the CD booklets. But none of the packaging included lyrics.
The legendary Don Was had signed on to produce the Hope Floats soundtrack. Brooks answered the phone and Was, with no introduction, said: “Are you panicking yet?”
Garth Brooks Panicked? Never.
He told Brooks his hero, Billy Joel, had recently released the song, and he should go pick up Joel’s album. Brooks did – and not only could he understand Joel’s words, but the lyrics were included.
Brooks took Joel’s vocal interpretation, Dylan’s instrumentals and production, added his own, distinct creative flavor, and his chart-topping country version of “To Make You Feel My Love” was born.
In addition to Brooks, Yearwood, and Joel, other artists have covered “To Make You Feel My Love,” including Adele, Joan Osborne, Neil Diamond, and Ed Sheeran.
Like Clarkson didn’t know “To Make You Feel My Love” was a Dylan song, Brooks’ youngest daughter didn’t know, either. She thought it belonged to Adele – and had never heard her dad’s version.
She came home from school when she was young, brimming with excitement about a new Adele song.
“She goes, ‘Dad, Dad, you’ve got to hear this song from Adele. I’ve never heard a song like it,” Brooks told Clarkson.
Brooks asked her the title, and she told him, “To Make You Feel My Love.”
“I said, ‘Oh really? Tell me about it,’” he recalled. Then he explained that people always ask him which version is her favorite.
His Daughter Thought it was an Adele Song
He quipped: “‘I don’t know, we haven’t spoken since that day.’”
Brooks was joking. A very proud dad to each of his three daughters, he added: “You walk around thinking ‘To Make You Feel My Love, I feel pretty good about my version.’ But then you hear Adele’s version, all of a sudden you’re like ‘Well okay, I get it, everything she touches just sings, it’s beautiful.’”
(Photo by Tammie Arroyo/AFF-USA/Shutterstock)
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