{"id":728749,"date":"2026-06-27T07:09:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T07:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/728749\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T07:09:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T07:09:12","slug":"61-years-ago-today-the-byrds-went-to-no-1-with-the-song-that-convinced-bob-dylan-to-go-electric","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/728749\/","title":{"rendered":"61 Years Ago Today, the Byrds Went to No. 1 With the Song That Convinced Bob Dylan To Go Electric"},"content":{"rendered":"

On this day (June 26) in 1965, the Byrds<\/a> were at No. 1 on the Hot 100 with \u201cMr. Tambourine Man.\u201d Written by Bob Dylan and released just a month after his original cut was released on Bringing It All Back Home, it was the band\u2019s debut single. Their version of the song is credited with starting the folk rock boom of the late 1960s. It also inspired Dylan to go electric.<\/p>\n

Dylan first recorded \u201cMr. Tambourine Man\u201d during the sessions for his 1964 album Another Side of Bob Dylan. That version featured Ramblin\u2019 Jack Elliott singing backing vocals. He was a little off-key during the recording, so Dylan chose to hold the song until his next album.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tVideos by American Songwriter\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Play\"\/<\/p>\n

Jim Dickson, the Byrds\u2019 manager, pitched the song to the band with the original recording, according to Songfacts<\/a>. The majority of the group didn\u2019t want to record it. They didn\u2019t think it fit their style. At the same time, they didn\u2019t believe the song had hit potential. Vocalist\/guitarist Roger McGuinn heard the tune\u2019s potential. He took it home, reworked it, and brought it back to the band. He changed the time signature and omitted some lyrics.<\/p>\n

Dylan came to the studio to hear them record his song. He was famously blown away by their arrangement, exclaiming, \u201cMan, you could dance to this!\u201d Hearing his music in a new light inspired the singer\/songwriter to pick up an electric guitar.<\/p>\n

Bob Dylan and the Byrds Interpreted \u201cMr. Tambourine Man\u201d Differently<\/p>\n

The common belief is that \u201cMr. Tambourine Man\u201d is about drugs. He\u2019s the dealer, and the \u201csong\u201d he plays is the substance. However, that wasn\u2019t the intention behind Bob Dylan\u2019s original recording or the Byrds\u2019 cover.<\/p>\n

[RELATED: The Byrds Made This Important Appearance Change Before Their Grand Ole Opry Debut, but It Didn\u2019t Help Much]<\/a><\/p>\n

Guitarist Bruce Langhorne inspired Dylan to write the song. \u201cBruce was playing with me on a bunch of early records. One session, Tom Wilson had asked him to play tambourine,\u201d Dylan recalled in the liner notes of Biograph. \u201cHe had this gigantic tambourine. It was, like, really big. It was as big as a wagon wheel. He was playing, and this image of him playing just stuck in my mind.\u201d He added, \u201cDrugs never played a part in that song\u2026 drugs were never that big a thing with me. I could take \u2018em or leave \u2018em. Never hung me up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roger McGuinn\u2019s interpretation of the song was much more spiritual. \u201cUnderneath the lyrics to \u2018Mr. Tambourine Man,\u2019 regardless of what Dylan meant, I was turning it into a prayer. I was singing to God, and I was saying that God was the tambourine man and I was saying to him, \u2018Hey God, take me for a trip, and I\u2019ll follow you,\u2019\u201d he explained. He interpreted the song\u2019s titular character as \u201cthe eternal life force.\u201d<\/p>\n

Featured Image by Mark Hayward Archive\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On this day (June 26) in 1965, the Byrds were at No. 1 on the Hot 100 with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[50998,88,124111,216,2156,113115],"class_list":["post-728749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-bob-dylan","tag-entertainment","tag-folk-music","tag-music","tag-rock-music","tag-the-byrds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}