The Beatles Stopped Bob Dylan’s Best Shot at Having a No. 1 Hit

Bob Dylan had cemented his legacy as a people music legend earlier than he met The Beatles. The Fab 4 already cherished his music earlier than their in-person encounter. John Lennon gave Dylan excessive reward/a backhanded praise when he mentioned Yoko Ono was as essential a singer because the troubadour. They had been musical icons of the Nineteen Sixties, however The Beatles denied Dylan his finest shot at having a No. 1 hit on the Billboard charts.

(l-r) George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, and John Lennon; Bob Dylan | Bettmann; Stanley Bielecki/ASP/Getty Photographs

The Beatles’ music ‘Help!’ stopped Bob Dylan from having a No. 1 hit in 1965

Escaping The Beatles’ shadow on the Billboard charts was subsequent to unattainable within the mid-Nineteen Sixties. The band tallied 47 of their 64 top-100 singles between 1964 and 1966. That run coincided with a few of Dylan’s best work of the last decade. That included 1965’s Freeway 61 Revisited.

Dylan had an unimaginable peak within the Nineteen Sixties. He was additionally one in every of a number of basic rock artists with out a No. 1 hit, and The Beatles blocked his finest probability to achieve the summit.

“Like a Rolling Stone,” the lead monitor on Freeway 61 Revisited, reached No. 2 on the Billboard singles chart in early September 1965. It stayed there one other week earlier than beginning its slide out of the highest 10. The Beatles held the No. 1 spot each weeks with “Help!” per Billboard

That 1965 rise to the penultimate spot was Dylan’s finest shot at No. 1. “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” rose to No. 2 for a week in Might 1966 just for The Mamas & The Papas’ “Monday, Monday” to carry the previous Robert Zimmerman at Bay.

The Beatles stopped Bob Dylan’s finest shot at incomes a Billboard No. 1 hit, however it didn’t stop him from remaining a fan of the group. And vice versa.

John mentioned listening to Dylan’s music affected his songwriting. Each artists absorbed the opposite’s affect after The Beatles first met Dylan in 1964. 

He launched them to pot. They opened their minds, altered their sound, and charted the course for the following half-decade of pop music. They confirmed him the ability of electrical guitars. He went electrical at the Newport Jazz Competition in 1965 and proved that you may nonetheless be a stellar singer-songwriter even with out an acoustic guitar. 

It could possibly be a coincidence that a few of Dylan’s career-defining albums — Freeway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde, John Wesley Harding — got here after he met the Fab 4, however it doesn’t appear to be one. John likewise took inspiration from his counterpart and wrote a number of Beatles songs impressed by Dylan, together with two from Rubber Soul.

Regardless of their closeness and fondness for one another’s work, Dylan and The Beatles hardly ever crossed paths professionally.

George Harrison was the one member of The Beatles Dylan labored with

Their peak years overlapped, and the person members of The Beatles had solo careers extending into the Eighties and past. But Dylan solely ever labored with one of many Fab 4 — George Harrison.

The freewheelin’ troubadour joined Harrison’s Touring Wilburys supergroup within the late Eighties. What began as an impromptu recording session with George, Jeff Lynne, and Roy Orbison saved including members. George phoned Dylan to ask about utilizing his studio, and Tom Petty tagged alongside after Harrison picked up his guitar from Petty’s home. The short-lived supergroup grew to become a hit with followers. It produced a multi-platinum debut and another album, however Dylan blamed the Touring Wilburys for his worst-reviewed album, 1990’s Beneath the Pink Sky.

Dylan virtually recorded with Ringo Starr in 1987, however the singer-songwriter stood up The Beatles drummer. It may need been for the most effective — Ringo’s solo album by no means noticed the sunshine of day. That was three years after Dylan had his final charting single. “Sweetheart Like You” reached No. 55 in early 1984.

The Beatles stopped Bob Dylan from having a No. 1 hit in 1965. It was additionally his finest probability as “Like a Rolling Stone” held at No. 2 for 2 weeks as “Help!” claimed the highest spot. Nonetheless, the singer-songwriter didn’t maintain a grudge. He joined Fab 4 guitarist George Harrison on two Touring Wilburys albums many years later.

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