• Writer: Bob Dylan
• Producers: Bob Johnston and Tom Wilson
• Recorded: June 15, 1965 at Columbia Studios in New York City
• Released: August 30, 1965
• Players:
  Bob Dylan — vocals, guitar, harmonica, piano
  Michael Bloomfield — guitar
  Charlie McCoy — guitar
  Frank Owens — piano
  Al Kooper — organ, piano
  Paul Griffin — organ, piano
  Harvey Goldstein — bass
  Bobby Gregg — drums
• Album: Highway 61 Revisited (Columbia, 1965)
• Also on: Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits (Columbia, 1967)
  Before the Flood (Columbia, 1974)
  At Budokan (Columbia, 1979)
  Biograph (Columbia, 1985)
  The Bootleg Series, Volumes 1-3 (Rare and Unreleased) 1961-1991 (Columbia, 1991)
  The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration (Columbia, 1993)
  MTV Unplugged (Columbia, 1995)
  Dylan (Columbia/Legacy, 2007)
• Bob Dylan was never considered a singles artist, but the session for “Like a Rolling Stone” was set up specifically with the idea of cutting a single.
• When the song timed out at six minutes, twice as long as most single releases, Dylan refused to edit it, and the full version was sent out to radio stations. His instincts paid off, and the song shot to Number One, the only time one of Dylan’s songs has occupied that spot.
• Soon after the recording of the highly charged “Like A Rolling Stone,” Dylan shocked the audience at the Newport Folk Festival with an ear-splitting electric performance that was roundly booed.
• As Dylan was writing the song, “it just came,” he has said, with the first draft of the lyrics reaching six pages.
• The song marked a turning point for music in general, combining folk-music-style lyrics with the power of rock ‘n’ roll, as well as a change in Dylan’s own songwriting. His pen became dipped in acid (both kinds) for a time, and he turned out a series of dark, accusatory songs such as “Ballad of a Thin Man” and “Positively Fourth Street.”
• The most unlikely sideman on the song was Al Kooper, who had talked his way past producer Tom Wilson, only to find himself assigned by Dylan to play organ — an instrument which he did not play. Ironically, his improvised keyboard riffs became the song’s hook.

FAST FORWARD:

• Dylan has been usually accommodating when it comes to his most famous song, releasing it on many albums and playing in year after year in concert. No Dylan show is complete without the audience chanting along to the first line of the chorus, “How does it feeeeel?”
• In the ’90s, “Like a Rolling Stone” was covered in concert, ironically enough, by the Rolling Stones, who included it on their Stripped live album in 1995.
• Dylan was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1982 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 1991 Grammy Awards ceremony.

During 1997, Dylan found himself knockin’ on heaven’s door when he hospitalized with a dangerous heart ailment that he said nearly earned him a trip to “see Elvis.” He made a full recovery and released the Grammy winning Time Out of Mind album later that year.