THE BYRDS - MR. TAMBOURINE MAN (in colour)
THE BYRDS - MR. TAMBOURINE MAN (in colour)
On this date in 1965, The Byrds entered the Billboard Pop chart for the first time with their version of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man", which will climb to #1 by June (May 15th 1965)
The debut single by THE BYRDS, MR. TAMBOURINE MAN, a cover of the Bob Dylan original, was released in April 1965 by Columbia Records.
The song was also the title track of the band's debut album, Mr. Tambourine Man, which was released two months later.
The Byrds version is based on Bob Dylan's demo of the song that he recorded during sessions for his 1964 album Another Side of Bob Dylan (Dylan's version was not yet released when The Byrds recorded it). It was The Byrds manager, Jim Dickson, who brought in the demo and asked them to record it - the group refused at first because they thought it didn't have any hit potential. When The Byrds did record it, they took some lyrics out and added a 12-string guitar lead.
"Kudos to Roger McGuinn for taking on 'Tambourine Man,' which didn't knock us out when we first heard it," said Byrds bass player Chris Hillman.
"Bob Dylan had written it in a very countrified groove, a straight 2/4 time signature, and Roger takes the song home and works with it, puts it in 4/4 time, so you could dance to it. Bob heard us do it and said, 'Man, you could dance to this!' It really knocked him over and he loved it."
Only three of the five members of the Byrds performed on this song: Roger McGuinn sang lead and played lead guitar; Gene Clark and David Crosby did the vocal harmonies.
Session musicians were brought in to play the other instruments, since the band was just starting out and wasn't deemed good enough yet by their management. The session musicians who played on this song were the Los Angeles members of what came to be known as "The Wrecking Crew" when drummer Hal Blaine used that term in his 1990 book. This group of about 50 players ended up on many hit songs of the era.
In addition to Blaine, studio pros who played on "Mr. Tambourine Man" were:
Bill Pitman - guitar
Jerry Cole - guitar
Larry Knechtel - bass
Leon Russell - piano
The Byrds who didn't play on this one were bass player Chris Hillman and drummer Michael Clarke.
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