By the mid-1960s, Bob Dylan had emerged as one of the most respected singer-songwriters in the music world. Dylan also enjoyed plenty of commercial success by that time, but he didn’t release a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart until 1974.
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On this day (February 16) in 1974, Bob’s 14th studio effort, Planet Waves, topped the chart. Originally set to be titled Ceremonies Of The Horsemen, Dylan’s decision to change the name last minute delayed its release by two weeks.
The album was a full-on collaboration with Dylan’s one-time touring group, The Band. Planet Waves knocked the late Jim Croce’s You Don’t Mess Around With Jim from the top of the Billboard 200 and spent four weeks at No. 1. It was replaced it the pinnacle of the chart by Barbra Streisand’s The Way We Were.
Planet Waves was an 11-track collection that featured 10 original songs by Dylan. It yielded two singles that only had minor chart success. “On A Night Like This” and “Something There Is About You” reached No. 44 and No. 107, respectively, on the Billboard Hot 100. Planet Waves also featured two versions of “Forever Young,” which probably remains the best-known song from the album.
Dylan’s History with The Band
As The Hawks, the members of The Band initially toured as Dylan’s backing group in 1965 and 1966. Bob often would get booed at those shows by folk fans who were upset that he’d started performing with electric accompaniment.
After Dylan suffered a serious motorcycle accident in 1966, the members of The Band joined him in the Woodstock, New York, area, where they worked on a variety of recordings with him that became known as “The Basement Tapes.” These sessions also led the group to create its own original music and rechristening itself The Band.
Dylan temporarily retired from performing after his accident. With The Band backing him, he played his first major show since 1966 at the Isle of Wight Festival in the UK in August 1969.
The idea for Dylan to record an album with The Band came about in the summer of 1973, when guitarist Robbie Robertson moved to Malibu, California, not far from where Bob lived.
Dylan hadn’t toured since 1966, and he and Robertson discussed Bob and The Band hitting the road together again. In September 1973, the members of The Band did a test rehearsal with Dylan, and he then agreed to organize a tour and record an album.
Details About ‘Planet Waves’
Dylan and The Band recorded Planet Waves from November 2 to November 14, 1973 at The Village Recorder studio in West Los Angeles, California. The album was produced by audio engineer Rob Fraboni.
The track Dylan spent the most time working on was “Forever Young.” It was a song he’d started writing several years earlier about his oldest son, Jesse. During the sessions, he tried recording various takes of the tune. Fraboni was particularly enamored with a slow-paced version Dylan recorded. Dylan didn’t like it that much, though, and wanted to record another version, but Fraboni convinced him to include that take on the album. Still, at one of the later sessions, Bob laid down a faster-paced rendition of “Forever Young,” and he also put that one on the album.
As Fraboni recounted in the 2001 book Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited, Dylan told him, “[I’ve] been carrying this song around in my head for five years and I never wrote it down and now I come to record it I just can’t decide how to do it.”
The Planet Waves album cover features a black-and-white drawing by Dylan. The back includes a rambling, poetic essay penned by Bob.
About Dylan’s 1974 Tour with The Band
Planet Waves was released on January 17, 1974. Dylan and The Band supported the album with a tour that kicked off with a January 3-4 stand in Chicago. The trek ran through a February 13-14 engagement in Inglewood, California.
In June 1974, Dylan and The Band released a live album titled Before The Flood that was mostly recorded at the Inglewood shows.
‘Planet Waves’ Track List:
Side One
- “On a Night Like This”
- “Going, Going, Gone”
- “Tough Mama”
- “Hazel”
- “Something There Is About You”
- “Forever Young”
Side Two
- “Forever Young”
- “Dirge”
- “You Angel You”
- “Never Say Goodbye”
- “Wedding Song”
(Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
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