On this day (June 9) in 1964, Bob Dylan was in the Columbia Records studios in New York to record sessions for his album Another Side of Bob Dylan. He cut more than a dozen songs during those sessions. Among them was “Mr. Tambourine Man.” Roughly a year later, the Byrds released the song as their debut single. It went to No. 1 and inspired countless musicians to chase their blend of rock and folk music.
Dylan’s first recording of “Mr. Tambourine Man” featured Ramblin’ Jack Elliott singing harmony. According to the Byrds’ Robert McGuinn, Elliott was “a little tipsy” during the session. As a result, he sang out of tune. Instead of doing another take on the song, Dylan chose to scrap it. He eventually rerecorded the song in January 1965 during sessions that yielded Bringing It All Back Home.
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The Byrds released “Mr. Tambourine Man” as the lead single from their debut album of the same name in April 1965, less than a month after Dylan released the original. Two months after its release, in late June, it topped the Hot 100 for a single week.
How the Byrds Got Bob Dylan’s Original Recording of “Mr. Tambourine Man”
Bob Dylan didn’t use his original recording of “Mr. Tambourine Man,” but his publisher did. That’s where the Byrds’ manager, Jim Dickson, got the acetate disc that he took to the band. Initially, most of the group wasn’t impressed with what they heard. Roger McGuinn, on the other hand, heard potential.
He changed the time signature, moved the arrangement to a different key, and omitted one of the song’s four verses. Then the rest of the group got on board and started rehearsing the song. Finally, they decided to put an electric arrangement behind Dylan’s lyrics, doing their best to copy the Beatles’ sound.
The result was a song that topped the charts in the United States and the United Kingdom during the British Invasion. It was also Dylan’s first song to reach No. 1 on any pop-oriented chart. The success of “Mr. Tambourine Man” also brought on the folk rock boom of the mid-1960s.
Some Folk Rock History
The Byrds’ rendition of this Bob Dylan classic wasn’t the first song to fall into the folk rock category. The Animals’ “House of the Rising Sun” combined the two genres a year before “Mr. Tambourine Man” became an international hit. At the same time, the Beatles, who inspired McGuinn and company, had folk elements in their music.
The difference is that the Byrds honed the balance of folk and rock perfectly with their debut single. Moreover, the success of their release ignited a fire in the Los Angeles music scene. Many artists hoped to find the same success by emulating the band’s sound. Groups like the Turtles, the Leaves, the Lovin’ Spoonful, and many more followed with jangly guitar arrangements, vocal harmonies, and socially conscious lyrics.
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