Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits

Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits
Greatest hits album by Bob Dylan
Released	March 27, 1967 (1967-03-27)
Recorded	July 9, 1962– March 10, 1966
Genre	Folk rock folk
Length	40:44
Label	Columbia
Producer	John H. Hammond Tom Wilson Bob Johnston
Bob Dylan chronology
Blonde on Blonde (1966) Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits (1967) John Wesley Harding (1967)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Rolling Stone	[2]

Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits is a 1967 compilation album of songs by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Released on March 27, 1967, by Columbia Records, in the non-productive period after Dylan's motorcycle accident in 1966, it was the first compilation album of material by Dylan. It contains every Top 40 single Dylan had up to 1967, plus additional tracks, including songs not released as singles by Dylan. It peaked at No. 10 on the pop album chart in the United States, and went to No. 3 on the album chart in the United Kingdom. Certified five times platinum by the RIAA, it is his best-selling album in the U.S.^[3]

Content[]

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Greatest Hits presented Dylan's first appearance on records after his praised Blonde on Blonde double-LP of May 1966 and his motorcycle accident of that summer. With no activity by Dylan since the end of his recent world tour, and no new recordings on the immediate horizon (the sessions that would in part be released in June 1975 as The Basement Tapes were still months away), Columbia wanted new product to continue to capitalize on Dylan's commercial appeal, so released Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, the label's first Dylan compilation.

Greatest Hits serves as Dylan's de facto singles collection for the 1960s. With the exception of "The Times They Are a-Changin'", "It Ain't Me Babe", and "Mr. Tambourine Man", all tracks on this album were released as 45 rpm singles in the United States during that decade. It is worth noting that in 1963 "Blowin' in the Wind" became a No. 2 hit single for Peter, Paul and Mary, and that in 1965 "Times" made it to No. 9 as a single release in the United Kingdom. In 1965 a truncated rock and roll version of "Mr. Tambourine Man" had been a No. 1 hit for The Byrds in the summer, and the Turtles took a folk-rock version of "It Ain't Me Babe" to No. 8. The remaining six tracks all made the Billboard Top 40 in 1965 and 1966. "Positively 4th Street" was the only single of the collection not either later released on or taken off a long-playing album, having been recorded during the sessions for Highway 61 Revisited.

When this album was remastered for its 1999 issue on compact disc 30 years later, a slightly longer alternative mix of "Positively 4th Street" was substituted for the original single version. In 2003, this album was released along with Dylan's two other greatest hits compilations in one four-disc boxed set, as Greatest Hits Volumes I–III.

An audiophile version of the album was released in August 2012, mastered by Steve Hoffman for the Audio Fidelity label as a 24-kt gold-plated CD. This disc is a limited edition of 5,000 individually numbered copies.^[4] Like the 1999 remaster, this CD contains a longer version of "Positively 4th Street."

Artwork[]

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The cover photograph used on the cover of Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits was taken by Rowland Scherman at Dylan's November 28, 1965, concert in Washington, D.C. Bob Cato was the designer of the album cover, which won the 1967 Grammy award for "Best Album Cover, Photography". The original album package also included Milton Glaser's now-familiar "psychedelic" poster^[5] depicting Dylan. A similar image taken at the Concert for Bangladesh in 1971 was selected for Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II, a compilation Dylan had much more control over.^{[citation needed]} John Berg, senior art director at Columbia Records, recognized that a backlit image such as Scherman's would work because of Dylan's distinctive profile and hairstyle.^{[citation needed]} It was his design, as well as Scherman's photo, that won the Grammy.

Track listing[]

Original release[]

All tracks are written by Bob Dylan. Chart positions are from Billboard Hot 100. In most cases the LP featured album versions in place of singles if such were not identical to single mixes.

Great Britain and Ireland[]

The UK release of the album had a slightly different track listing. "Positively 4th Street" was omitted, but "She Belongs to Me", "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue", and "One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)" were added.^[6] In the UK, this album was followed up by Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits 2, which repeated the Blonde on Blonde songs from the first Greatest Hits and also added "Absolutely Sweet Marie", "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues", "Gates of Eden", "Chimes of Freedom", and several others.^[7] This album was different from the album called Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II in the US, which was released in 1971 and called More Bob Dylan Greatest Hits in the UK.

Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits 2

Europe[]

Subtitled "Nobody sings Dylan like Dylan", this version was compiled in 1966. Only half of the 12 songs are also on the U.S. release. Songs from Blonde on Blonde are missing altogether.

Charts[]

Certifications[]

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)[10]	2× Platinum	200,000^
France (SNEP)[11]	2× Gold	200,000*
Netherlands (NVPI)[12]	Platinum	100,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[13]	2× Platinum	600,000
United States (RIAA)[14]	5× Platinum	5,000,000^
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References[]

External links[]

• Bob Dylan singles chart positions