Rather than looking at a specific date, I thought I'd review a specific artist. Today (5/24/11) is Bob Dylan's 70th birthday, so lets look at Dylan's chart success.
Song-database.com lists Dylan as the 230th most popular artist of all time (1940 through 2010). I'm not sure exactly how they figure, but 230 places him above REO Speedwagon, and below Sheena Easton (really, Sheena Easton). But within the genre "Folk" he's #2, behind only Simon & Garfunkel.
Over the years Dylan has had 12 songs make the Top 40, way fewer than I'd've guessed. They are:
- Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 - peaked at #2 in 1966
- Like A Rolling Stone- peaked at #2 in 1965
- Lay Lady Lay- peaked at #7 in 1969
- Positively 4th Street- peaked at #7 in 1965
- Knockin' On Heaven's Door- peaked at #12 in 1973
- I Want You- peaked at #20 in 1966
- Gotta Serve Somebody- peaked at #24 in 1979
- Tangled Up In Blue- peaked at #31 in 1975
- George Jackson- peaked at #33 in 1971
- Just Like A Woman- peaked at #33 in 1966
- Hurricane- peaked at #33 in 1975
- Subterranean Homesick Blues- peaked at #39 in 1965
I know (and have) 11 of those 12, don't immediately know George Jackson.
It would be virtually impossible to list the Top 40 hits written by Dylan, but recorded by others. A few off the top of my head:
- Mr. Tambourine Man - Byrds - #1 in 1965
- Blowin' In The Wind - Peter Paul & Mary - #2 in 1963
- It Ain't Me Babe - Turtles - #8 in 1965
- Don't Think Twice It's Alright - Peter Paul & Mary - #9 in 1963
- Mighty Quinn - Manfred Mann - #10 in 1968
- Forever Young - Rod Stewart - #12 in 1988
- All I Really Want To Do - Cher - #15 in 1965
- All Along The Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix - #20 in 1968
I'm sure there's more hits. And I'm not even going to attempt to list all the "not-Top-40" Dylan covers.
The title post, of course, is a reference to the Hootie & The Blowfish song "I Only Want To Be With You", which referenced some lines from Dylan's "Idiot Wind".
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