Top 20 Bob Dylan Covers

Dylan and his acoustic guitar. © Michael Ochs Archives / Getty

With the new biopic of his early sixties years, A Complete Unknown, riding high in the cinema charts it seems an apt time to look into another aspect of Bob Dylan’s career, namely the cover versions of his songs, hundreds and hundreds of which spanning the decades. Genre-defying, Dylan’s work has been covered by artists from the worlds of - amongst others - rock, pop, folk, country, soul, reggae, blues, indie, jazz, Cajun and punk in over a thousand works.

In this article, we take a look at some of those cover songs which have most left their mark on the music scene. Artists can appear more than once but each song is only allowed one entry. Co-writes are excluded, hence the non-appearance of “The Ballad of Easy Rider” and The Old Crow Medicine Show’s classic “Wagon Wheel”.

What do you think? Is your favourite here? Why not add your thoughts to the comments section below!

#20: George Harrison - “If Not For You”

Dylan included his ode to wife Sara Lowndes on his 1970 album New Morning. He also recorded a version with George Harrison on guitar which can be found on Dylan’s Bootlegs 1-3. Therefore it is perhaps unsurprising that George decided to cut his own version on his groundbreaking 1970 triple album All Things Must Pass. George even digs out the tambourines to give the background sound a Hare Krishna feel.

#19: The Byrds - “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere”

The first of three entries in our chart by those masters of the Dylan cover, The Byrds, specifically here Roger McGuinn. It opens 1968’s Sweethearts of the Rodeo album when they were joined by Gram Parsons, and with David Crosby and Gene Clark now long gone, The Byrds’ psychedelic sound was replaced by full-blown country rock. A belter of a tune with a singalong chorus to die for, Dylan first put it on album on Greatest Hits 2 before it appeared on 1975’s Basement Tapes with The Band.

#18: Nancy Sinatra - “It Ain’t Me Babe”

Nancy gives Dylan’s all-time classic, a staple of his live shows for decades and closing track on Another Side of Bob Dylan, the full girl power treatment. Whereas Dylan’s song probably laments his break up with muse Suze Rotolo, Nancy practically dares the listener to think she will be the one ‘to protect’ them. Watch out Mister! This girl is gonna walk all over you!

#17: Fairport Convention - “Million Dollar Bash”

In some circles Fairport Convention’s third album, Unhalfbricking, in 1969 is considered essential featuring the classic Fairport line-up of Denny/Thompson/Nicol/Hutchings/Lamble with help from Swarbrick and Mattacks. With vocalist Sandy Denny at the top of her game on “Who Knows Where the Time Goes”, it was left to the whole band to join in for this party time closer, a cover from The Basement Tapes’ 1967 Big Pink sessions with The Band. And they are clearly having fun, and thankfully so as drummer Martin Lamble perished in a car crash shortly after recordings were completed and within a year Sandy Denny herself would be ploughing a different solo furrow. This song serves as a reminder of folk music at its heartiest.

#16: Emmylou Harris - “Every Grain of Sand”

Emmylou Harris’s 1995 album Wrecking Ball is considered by many her finest. Under the astute production of Daniel Lanois, Harris covers songs by Neil Young, Lucinda Williams and Gillian Welch to name but three in possibly her most perfect hour since she wowed the crowd at Hammersmith Odeon with the Hot Band post-Gram in ’76. Standing out amongst all these gems though is her take on Dylan’s “Every Grain of Sand” from his Christian period Shot of Love album. Popular music’s finest country singer and backing singer doing Dylan’s masterpiece proud.

#15: Rod Stewart - “Mama You Been On My Mind”

Years ago, before he discovered Baby Jane and Hotlegs, Rod Stewart was a fine singer of his own songs, compositions by his Faces bandmates and also of other artists. Following on from the success of his excellent album Every Picture Tells a Story, he produced Never a Dull Moment which included hit single “You Wear it Well”. Also nestled into side one was the Dylan title above, yet another Suze Rotolo break-up song which was not released by the man himself until some twenty years after Rod’s version. It is one of Dylan’s finest love songs and Rod’s raspy, somewhat solemn take does justice to the writer’s intentions.

#14: Roseanne Cash - “Girl From the North Country”

Johnny Cash once passed a note to his daughter Roseanne including a list of 100 essential country songs. She included some on her 2009 album The List. One of them was this beautiful melody originally airing on Dylan’s Freewheelin’ album from 1963 but most notably re-recorded as a duet with Johnny Cash for 1969’s Nashville Skyline. Johnny’s daughter rises to a not inconsiderable challenge and through her deft guitar playing and gorgeous voice takes the song to the next level.

#13: The Byrds - “Mr Tambourine Man”

With this version of Dylan’s classic song, The Byrds introduced the world to a jingly jangly guitar sound on a 12 string Rickenbacker that heralded the arrival of folk rock and later psychedelic music. Who knows, maybe even Bob himself was impressed? Certainly the record-buying public were as it stormed to number one for two weeks in those heady days of ’65, needing one of the Beatles finest 45s to dislodge it from the top spot. The Byrds had arrived and flower power was on the horizon.

#12: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - “Death Is Not The End”

A song from one of Dylan’s least heralded albums, 1987’s Down in the Groove, where better to find a cover than on Nick Cave’s superb album Murder Ballads from 1996. Cave‘s collaborators on this mournful singalong to eternal life include former lovers Anita Lane and Polly Harvey, buddy Shane MacGowan and pop songstress Kylie Minogue. Everybody, including some Bad Seeds, gets a chance to sing a verse and join in the chorus. Was it after this album that Cave shot into the ranks of the greats? Maybe Bob Dylan needs thanking.

#11: Cher - “All I Really Want To Do”

Byrds fans will be furious, but the version of this song (the opener from Another Side of Bob Dylan) chosen here is Cher’s, which was released at the same time as The Byrds’ effort. Whether one of them would have had a big number one without the other’s presence is a topic for late nights over a bottle of whiskey, but Cher is here because… well, just because she has a great voice whether with Sonny on “I Got You Babe” or as a solo artist on the marvellous “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves”, her deep tones take the song to different highs, although whether the song works lyrically with a female lead is for you to decide.

And here we have it pop pickers - the TOP TEN Dylan covers!

#10: Nanci Griffith - “Boots of Spanish Leather”

With her folksy stage show banter breaking a million hearts, Nanci Griffith was rightly riding the crest of a wave in the early nineties after a string of successful albums. Her decision to produce the covers album Other Voices, Other Rooms proved inspired as the works of Townes Van Zandt, John Prine and Ralph McTell amongst others all fell under her Texan charm. Nestled amongst these was her take on Dylan’s “Boots of Spanish Leather”, a heartfelt tale of two distant lovers slowly drifting apart with the boots perhaps as a goodbye present? It’s Nanci’s voice that wins the day here. She is sadly missed.   

#9: Manfred Mann - “Mighty Quinn”

Dylan’s Basement Tapes era gave birth to a song called “Quinn the Eskimo” but it was British pop act Manfred Mann who catapulted the song to number one in the winter of ’68 giving it the title “Mighty Quinn”. Shamelessly singalong in nature and lending itself to football supporters anywhere who had a player called Quinn or anything that rhymed with it - say Flynn or Glynn - it was evidence of Dylan’s capacity to cross the genres. In fact the rugby club Harlequins have even taken the song as their own! Manfred Mann came down to earth not long after their soaring success.

#8: Joe Cocker - “Just Like A Woman”

Now it is really heating up. This is a magnificent version of an all-time great Dylan song, which Cocker wowed fans with at Woodstock, where he truly made his name. Appearing on 1969’s With a Little Help from My Friends album, this classic failed love story from legendary Dylan album Blonde on Blonde gets the full throaty sweaty Cocker treatment. You will find yourself singing along with tears in your eyes.

#7: The Neville Brothers - “With God On Our Side”

One of Dylan’s greatest lyrics, the futility of war is never better summarised than in this song made all the more poignant by the vocal of Aaron Neville and his brothers on their Yellow Moon album (1989). If a vocal ever took a song to a higher level then this one does.

#6: The Byrds - “My Back Pages”

Yet another Dylan track from the Another Side of Bob Dylan album, as the songwriter seems to be turning his back on either his previous ideals or his previous musical style. ‘I was so much older then I’m younger than that now.’ But certainly these are certainly Dylan’s most ‘interpret it whatever way fits for you’ lyrics. The Byrds’ version proved to be their last U.S. top 40 single and internal wrangling would soon see Crosby leave the group as McGuinn took the band in a different direction. Whatever… this is a superb vocal performance and rendition of a classic Dylan tune.

#5: Warren Zevon - “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door”

Never was there a more apt version of Dylan’s song of approaching demise that he recorded for the film Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Zevon’s final album, an Uncut album of the year, was released just two weeks before his sad early demise. A legend of the California singer songwriter scene, Zevon’s version of this classic song leaves a lump in the throat.

#4: Wilko Johnson/Roger Daltrey - “Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window”

Wilko saw the album from which this cut comes (2014’s Going Back Home) as his final goodbye having been diagnosed with a terminal illness the year before. He got together with Daltrey to produce what for both would be their most successful piece of work in decades. No small credit should be given to their version of this mid-sixties Dylan single, which was the first tune that Dylan cut with members of The Band (then The Hawks). Daltrey dominates proceedings with surely his finest vocal performance since “Baba O’Reilly”. Wilko provides the throbbing engine that propels this tune so high up our chart. The enigmatic guitarist crawled back to life and lived for eight more years!    

#3: Jimi Hendrix - “All Along the Watchtower”

Yes, it’s a Bob Dylan song and indeed one the great man has played live more than any other, but ask most music fans and they see this as Hendrix’s baby. The full sense of foreboding in the song is created by the sounds coming from Hendrix’ guitar, the like of which hadn’t been heard before, and along with the wild percussion contributed by Brian Jones, it is a far cry from Dylan’s acoustic harmonica-led original.

#2: Lucinda Williams - “Positively 4th Street”

An album came out in 1995 called The Bottom Line (… A Bunch of Songwriters Sitting around Singing) and one of the guests at this New York club, where the songs on the album were recorded, was Lucinda Williams doing a version of this angriest of Dylan tunes. Something about her delivery, her southern drawl is perfect for this rant against those doubting the songwriter on the cusp of a new direction. Lucinda went on to experience several career highlights in the years ahead. Was this song the one that kick started it all? It is the live version on The Bottom Line album not her other recording of the song that stakes its claim to our number two spot.

#1: Them - “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue”

Van Morrison was on the brink of solo superstardom when his band released their second album Them Again in January ’66, including this Dylan cover. It is one of Van’s finest vocal performances with his band providing mounting atmospheric backing. What more can a cover do than make you prefer it to the original despite the latter’s brilliance? Van was signalling his way ahead and using Dylan for his inspiration. And indeed, it was all over as that summer Them split up whilst on tour in the States. Van became a superstar and the reformed varieties of Them never again achieved the success that songs like this guaranteed them. Dylan’s song of his mid-sixties shift from folk to rock provides us with our number one.