Track Listing

1. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
2. Blowin' in the Wind
3. Times They Are A-Changin'
4. It Ain't Me Babe
5. Like a Rolling Stone
6. Mr. Tambourine Man
7. Subterranean Homesick Blues
8. I Want You
9. Positively 4th Street
10. Just Like a Woman

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1673 in Music
• Released on: 1999-06-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered

Amazon.com
Then a holding action while Dylan unloaded his head after his May 1966 motorcycle crash, now a nostalgia merit badge for boomers and a course in Dylan 101 for '90s newcomers, Greatest Hits stands up remarkably well as a listening experience. Smartly programmed to ride all over any residual worries about acoustic-vs.-electric authenticity--in fact, blowing a raspberry in their face by opening with the Salvation-Army-band blast of "Rainy Day Women #12 and 35"--this best-of stacks AM smashes and protest anthems together in celebration of a pop star like no other before. --Rickey Wright

Customer Reviews

A good start
Bob Dylan recorded so many classic songs in the 1960s that trying to pick out a single disc's worth as being definitive is a fool's errand at best. Fortunately, "Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits" was follwed by a double disc "Volume 2" that together make for two incredibly strong anthology albums. This album does contain perhaps the most well known songs of Dylan's incredible output from the 60's, though songs like "Mr. Tamborine Man" (The Byrds) and "It Ain't Me Babe" (The Turtles) were chart hits for other artists. The epic "Like a Rolling Stone" was the biggest chart hit for Dylan himeslf, while "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They are a-Changing" came to define the protest generation. "Positively 4th Street" is one of the most biting putdowns ever recorded while on "I Want You" and "Just Like a Woman" Bob proved he can write great romantic songs as well.

Overall, this is a great disc to start your Dylan collection and will ultimately leave you wanting more.

The greatest American poet of the past century
No point in going over each song. There is no greatest hit collection to compare to this one. If you're clueless to Dylan and his music, and you're a thinking human being with the slightest sense of humanity and poetry in your soul, buy it, listen to it, listen to it, listen to it. He was the voice of the 60's that stretches beyond, above, behind and everywhere else. So many have given their interpretations of his songs. I never get tired of hearing a new Dylan song re-interpreted. I'm energized when I hear a Dylan tune on the radio. I mean, how can you not feel the eternal pain of "Blowin' In The Wind", the TRUTH of "Like A Rolling Stone", the poetry of "Mr. Tambourine Man", the cutting insights of "It Aint Me Babe", the words of "Positively 4th Street". There is no replacement "singer" or "writer" to compare to Dylan. He changed all of us in ways we have all lost sight of. Thanks, Bob.

A fine introductory sampler; give it a break!
Those who bash this best-of for not being complete enough are, I think, missing the point; "Greatest Hits" was never intended to be anything like a definitive overview of Dylan's early work. It was, quite simply, an attempt by Columbia Records to cash in on a hot talent and, simultaneously, provide consumers with "new" product while the artist himself pieced himself back together (physically, mentally, and artistically). Crass? Exploitative? Shameless? You betcha. But in spite of its unholy origins, "Greatest Hits" works.

For one thing, there's absolutely no filler here; every cut is a stone-cold classic. (Granted, that's not because of any special care on Columbia's part but because Dylan is incapable of writing a totally worthless song.) For another, it functions admirably well as a "starter kit"; I, for one, was first introduced to Dylan's work though this album; if not for "Greatest Hits" to whet my appetite I might never have gone on and discovered his "real" albums.

That said, I have to wonder why Columbia didn't take a little more care with the reissue CD. Sure, the remastered sound is a marked improvement, but why not throw in a few bonus tracks? And couldn't a decent booklet with liner notes and session information have been provided? If and when the rest of Dylan's catalog is reissued, I hope Columbia gives them more the kind of treatment they've given the Byrds and Miles Davis. Those complaints aside, I see no reason to be ashamed of owning, and liking, this CD.