25 Dylan Albums, One Iconic Image

Album: The Times They Are A-Changin’
Year: 1964
Notes: Dylan's third album was his first that featured all original songs, including the iconic title track. The record reached #20 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Album: Highway 61 Revisited
Year: 1965
Notes: The album peaked at #4 on the Billboard chart, but has grown in reputation over the years. Rolling Stone slotted it at #4 on its 2003 list of the Greatest Albums of All Time. The magazine reserved even higher praise for the record’s most famous tune, “Like a Rolling Stone,” naming it a year later as the Greatest Song of All Time.

Album: Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits
Year: 1967
Notes: The album’s memorable cover image was shot at a November 1965 concert in Washington, D.C., and won a 1967 Grammy Award for Best Album Cover, Photography. The original album also included artist Milton Glaser’s iconic psychedelic poster.

Album: John Wesley Harding
Year: 1967
Notes: After three rock albums, this one marked Dylan’s return to acoustic music. At Dylan’s insistence, it was released without any promotion but still reached #2 on the Billboard chart. The title song is about a real-life Texas cowboy named John Wesley Hardin — Dylan misspelled his name while penning the tune.

Album: Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Vol. II
Year: 1971
Notes: The double album featured five previously unreleased songs. Its cover art closely resembles the image that graced Dylan’s first greatest hits collection — the photo of Dylan was taken during his performance at George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh.

Album: Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid
Year: 1973
Notes: The soundtrack for the Sam Peckinpah Western of the same name, in which Dylan played a drifter named Alias. The album included “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” which has been covered by artists ranging from Eric Clapton to Avril Lavigne.

Album: Planet Waves
Year: 1974
Notes: It’s hard to believe, but Dylan’s 14th studio album was his first to reach the top of the Billboard chart. Tracks include “Forever Young” and “On a Night Like This.”

Album: Before The Flood
Year: 1974
Notes: This live album featured Dylan performing with his frequent collaborators The Band. The record was also the second of two recorded for Asylum Records during a two-year break from longtime label Columbia.

Album: The Basement Tapes
Year: 1975
Notes: Though released eight years later, this album featured songs recorded with The Band during 1967 while Dylan recovered from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident. A New York Times review hailed it as “one of the greatest albums in the history of American popular music.”

Album: Bob Dylan at Budokan
Year: 1979
Notes: This live double album features completely reworked versions of many of Dylan’s biggest hits, including “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “Mr. Tambourine Man.” The experimental interpretations garnered some of the worst reviews of Dylan’s career, though it still reached #13 on the Billboard chart.

Album: Saved
Year: 1980
Notes: You can judge a record by its title: This album features themes related to Dylan’s then-recent conversion to born-again Christianity. It became the first Dylan record in 16 years that failed to crack the Billboard top 20.

Album: Infidels
Year: 1983
Notes: The album was a collaboration between Dylan and Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler, who served as producer. The second track, “Sweetheart Like You,” became Dylan’s first music video of the MTV era.

Album: Real Live
Year: 1984
Notes: Recorded mostly during a summer 1984 concert at London’s Wembley Stadium, the album was one of the lowest selling of Dylan’s career. It never even entered the top 100 on the Billboard chart.

Album: Empire Burlesque
Year: 1985
Notes: Dylan’s 23rd studio album was a bit overshadowed by his participation in several high-profile charitable efforts, including USA for Africa’s We Are The World album and the Live Aid and Farm Aid concerts.

Album: Knocked Out Loaded
Year: 1986
Notes: A mix of covers and originals, Dylan shares songwriting credits with an eclectic list of collaborators, including Tom Petty, Carole Bayer Sager, Kris Kristofferson and playwright/actor Sam Shepard, with whom he teamed to write the 11-minute “Brownsville Girl.”

Album: Down in the Groove
Year: 1988
Notes: The critically ravaged album continued Dylan’s downward sales trend of the late 1980s. In 2007, Rolling Stone ranked the record #1 on its list of 15 Worst Albums By Great Bands.

Album: Good As I Been To You
Year: 1992
Notes: A true throwback to his roots, this collection of traditional folk songs (none written by Dylan) was the singer’s first entirely acoustic album since Another Side of Bob Dylan was released nearly 30 years before.

Album: The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration
Year: 1993
Notes: This live double album features performances of Dylan songs by an all-star cast, including Johnny Cash, Stevie Wonder, Eddie Vedder and John Cougar Mellencamp. Recorded at Madison Square Garden, the concert commemorated Dylan’s 30 years as a recording artist.

Album: World Gone Wrong
Year: 1993
Notes: Another collection of acoustic and traditional folk songs, as arranged by Dylan.

Album: Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Volume 3
Year: 1994
Notes: Dylan’s first best-of package in 23 years spans the period from 1973 to 1990 and includes classic tracks like “Tangled Up in Blue,” “Hurricane” and “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.”

Album: The Essential Bob Dylan
Year: 2000
Notes: This two-CD compilation was part of Columbia Record’s “Essential” series that showcased the label’s most legendary artists of the previous century. The 30 songs begin with 1962’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” and end at 1999’s “Things Have Changed,” which was featured in the movie Wonder Boys and earned Dylan an Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Album: "Love And Theft"
Year: 2001
Notes: After the success of 1997’s Time Out of Mind, this album continued Dylan’s sales resurgence, reaching #5 on the Billboard chart. Dylan produced the album himself — under the pseudonym “Jack Frost.”

Album: Bob Dylan Live 1975
Year: 2002
Notes: The fifth installment of the nine-volume Bootleg Series, the album features Dylan performing during the Rolling Thunder Revue tour. The collection includes four duets with Joan Baez.

Album: The Best of Bob Dylan
Year: 2005
Notes: A scaled-back, single-disc version of The Essential Bob Dylan, this album features 15 of the same songs as its predecessor. The one new inclusion: “Summer Days” from Love And Theft.

Album: Modern Times
Year: 2006
Notes: With this release of rootsy, rockabilly tunes, Dylan’s comeback was complete. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard chart — his first chart-topping record in 30 years. Dylan was 65 at the time of its release, and is the oldest artist ever to have an album enter the Billboard chart at the top spot.