Today in Music (1963): cover of Bob Dylan's “Blowin’ in the Wind” charted

Blowin’ in the Wind Bob Dylan

Writer(s): Bob Dylan (see lyrics here) First Recorded: July 9, 1962 Released (album cut): May 27, 1963 Released (single): August 13, 1963 Peak: 1 CL, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.2 UK Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 55.5 video, 202.40 streaming

Blowin’ in the Wind Peter, Paul & Mary

First Charted: June 29, 1963 Peak: 2 US, 2 CB, 2 HR, 15 AC, 13 UK, 25 CN, 11 AU, 6 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 32.9 video, 28.33 streaming

Blowin’ in the Wind Stevie Wonder

First Charted: July 16, 1966 Peak: 9 US, 11 CB, 11 RB, 36 UK, 12 CN, 4 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 2.1 video, 1.24 streaming

Awards (Bob Dylan): Click on award for more details. Awards (Peter, Paul & Mary): Click on award for more details. Awards (Stevie Wonder): Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Robert Allen Zimmerman, aka Bob Dylan, was signed to Columbia Records and released his self-titled debut album in 1962. It “didn’t sell, critics couldn’t stand his voice and he was regarded…as [producer John] Hammond’s folly.” HL However, the follow-up, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, produced “five songs that have become standards of one sort or another – ‘Girl from the North Country’…’A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,’ ‘Masters of War,’ ‘Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,’ and ‘Blowin’ in the Wind.’” HL Rolling Stone not only said “Blowin’ in the Wind” was “Dylan’s first important composition” RS500 but “the most famous protest song ever written.” RS500 In his Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings, Steve Sullivan calls it “the defining song of folk music’s alliance with the civil rights movement.” SS “While the perspective of passing decades has not been uniformly kind to other social protest songs of its era, the stature of ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ has not diminished one iota. The questions it poses are eternal and the eloquence with which it presents them remains powerful.” SS “It’s a plea for people to open their eyes and ears to injustice in the world.” SS In Martin Scorsese’s Dylan documentary No Direction Home, Mavis Staples said she was astonished upon first hearing the song that a young white man could write something that so successfully captured the frustration of black people. WK Sam Cooke was inspired by the song to write “A Change Is Gonna Come,” another song strongly associated with the civil rights movement. WK The melody is adapted from the slavery-era, African-American spiritual “No More Auction Block.” WK In The Folk Songs of North America, Alan Lomax exerts that “the song was sung by former slaves who fled to Nova Scotia after Britain abolished slavery in 1833.” WK The “language is rooted as much in Woody Guthrie’s earthy vernacular as in biblical rhetoric. But in a decisive break with the current-events conventions of topical folk songs, Dylan framed the crises around him in a series of fierce, poetic questions that addressed what he believed was man’s greatest inhumanity to man: indifference. ‘Some of the biggest criminals are those that turn their heads away when they see wrong,’ he declared in the Freewheelin’ liner notes.” RS500 The song “introduced most of America to the man whose song-poetry would change the shape of popular music.” SS Critic Andy Gill said, “It remains the song with which Dylan’s name is most inextricably linked.” WK However, it was the folk trio Peter, Paul & Mary who first popularized the song. Before Dylan had even released the song, he performed it in Greenwich Village with Peter, Paul & Mary in the audience. They loved it and arranged to record it. SS They were “an act that could put folk music into the pop charts.” TC They helped Dylan gain recognition as a songwriter and effectively “put protest music into every home in the western world.” TC A rumor circulated in 1963 that “Blowin’ in the Wind” was actually written by Lorre Wyatt, a high school student from Milburn, New Jersey. Dylan recorded the song on July 9, 1962, but didn’t publish it until three weeks later. SJ Because this is highly unusual, it is suggested that Dylan learned the song from Wyatt, recorded it, and then took credit for it after finding out Wyatt hadn’t published it. Supposedly Dylan bought it for $1000. Wyatt himself, however, denies writing the song. SJ In addition, the song appears to have actually been publiedh by Dylan in May 1962 in Broadside, a magazine founded by Pete Seeger about topical songs. WK It has also been recorded by Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, Sam Cooke, Bobby Darin, Marianne Faithfull, the Four Seasons, the Hooters, Etta James, Ziggy Marley, the Chad Mitchell Trio, Elvis Presley, the Supremes, U2, Stevie Wonder, and Neil Young. Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Bob Dylan DMDB encyclopedia entry for Peter, Paul & Mary DMDB encyclopedia entry for Stevie Wonder TC Toby Creswell (2005). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time. Thunder’s Mouth Press: New York, NY. Pages 810-11. HL Michael Heatley and Spencer Leigh (1998). Behind the Song: The Stories of 100 Great Pop & Rock Classics. Blandford Books: London, UK. Pages 122-23. RS500 Rolling Stone (9/15/2021). “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time” SJ Bob Shannon and John Javna (1986). Behind the Hits: Inside Stories of Classic Pop and Rock and Roll. Warner Brothers, Inc.: New York, NY. Pages 246-7. SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Page 97. DT Dave Thompson (2011). 1000 Songs That Rock Your World. Krause Publications: Iola, WI. Page 74. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 8/24/2022; last updated 5/23/2024.

On This Day (1937): Robert Johnson “Hell Hound on My Trail” recorded

Hell Hound on My Trail Robert Johnson

Writer(s): Peter Green, Robert Johnson (see lyrics here) Recorded: June 20, 1937 Released: September 1937 First Charted: -- Peak: -- (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 2.1 video, 2.38 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: This is one of “the deepest and darkest of Robert Johnson's legendary blues masterworks.” BH In his 1992 book Searching for Robert Johnson, Peter Guralnick calls the song “Johnson’s crowning achievement.” Ted Gioia calls “Hell Hound on My Trail” one of Johnson’s “best known and most admired performances – many would say it is his greatest.” TG This “agonized performance” SS is a showcase for “a disturbing vision of a blues poet haunted by spirits, doomed to die before he would ever see the fruits of an alleged deal with the devil.” BH The lyrics focus on “the familiar blues theme of the rambling musician” TG but “the trip takes on darker tones, the traveler is pursued.” TG Music historian Samuel Charters says the first and last verses might be the finest in all of the blues. WK Southern churches at the time suggested hellhounds – mythological hounds that were servants of the devil – were coming to catch sinners. WK Texas Tech University professor Karlos K. Hill speculated that the song might be a reference to bloodhounds used by lynch mobs to track down fugitives. Johnson’s own stepfather, Charles Dodds, changed his name and fled the Mississippi Delta after being threatened with lynching by a white mob. WK Regardless of Johnson’s intent “there is no doubting the harrowed and forsaken depth of Johnson’s performance.” BH Johnson wasn’t the first to reference hell hounds. They are referenced in the Biddleville Quintette’s “Show Pity Lord” (1926), Sylvester Weaver’s “Devil Blues” (1927), and “Funny Paper” Smith’s “Howling Wolf Blues No. 3” (1931). WK There are some lyrics even adapted from Peetie Wheatstraw’s “Police Station Blues” (1932). BH all which made references to hell hounds. WK Johnson proved to be “a master synthesizer, pulling together bits and pieces of existing material and infusing them with something entirely his own.” SS “The melody, the lyrics, and the hellish connection all bore elements of other records Johnson must have heard,” BH most notably “the emotional intensity, guitar tuning and strained singing style” EW of Skip James’ “Devil Got My Woman” from 1931. James’ “Yola My Blues Away” from the same year also exhibited the same tuning and vocal styles. WK Other songs included Johnnie Temple’s “Evil Devil Blues” (1935) and Joe McCoy’s “The Mississippi Mudder” (1934). BH Resources: BH Blues Hall of Fame by Jim O’Neal TG Ted Gioia (2009). Delta Blues. New York City: W.W. Norton. Pages 181-2. SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Pages 282-3. EW Elijah Wald (2004). Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues. New York City: Amistad. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 9/7/2023; last updated 4/26/2025.