Nobody sings Dylan like Dylan—on that we can all agree. But there are those who, never having warmed to his idiosyncratic vocal style, have studiously avoided listening to his records, only encountering his songs as recorded by other artists—Jimi Hendrix’s justly renowned version of “All Along the Watchtower,” for instance. Here are 10 other noteworthy examples:
Richie Havens— “Just Like a Woman”—A highlight of Havens’ 1967 album Mixed Bag, it was never a hit single per sé but got played on the then-new progressive free-form FM rock radio format as though it was one. From Bob Dylan’s 1966 double album Blonde on Blonde.
Manfred Mann—“The Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo)”—After his 1966 motorcycle accident, Dylan withdrew to Woodstock, N.Y., where, over the course of the following year he recorded what became known as The Basement Tapes with his backing band the Hawks (soon to become the Band). Covers were solicited for several of the songs, this one becoming the biggest hit in 1968. Dylan himself released a live version on Self Portrait in 1970 with his Basement Tapes version following in 1975.
The Band—“This Wheel’s On Fire”—Another Basement Tapes tune, this one co-written by Rick Danko of the Band, it became the penultimate track on that band’s debut release Music From Big Pink in 1968. The song reached a new audience in the 1990s as the theme of the British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous as sung by Julie Driscoll, reprising her 1968 U.K. hit with Brian Auger and the Trinity.
Joe Cocker—“Dear Landlord”—Joe Cocker included two oft-covered Dylan songs, “Just Like a Woman” and “I Shall Be Released,” on his first album. The less well-known “Dear Landlord” led off the second, Joe Cocker!, in 1969, achieving substantial FM radio exposure. It had first appeared on Dylan’s John Wesley Harding the previous year.
Rick Nelson—“She Belongs to Me”—As Ricky Nelson he scored 18 Top 10 hits from the late 1950s to the early 1960s, returning to the top 10 nearly a decade later with “Garden Party.” In between there was, most memorably, “She Belongs to Me,” a hit from the album Rick Nelson In Concert in 1970 but introduced on Bob Dylan’s Bringing It All Back Home in 1965.
George Harrison, Olivia Newton-John—“If Not for You”—First heard on Dylan’s 1970 release New Morning and shortly thereafter covered by George Harrison on his solo breakthrough All Things Must Pass, this song provided Olivia Newton-John with her first American Top 40 hit in 1971.
The O’Jays—“Emotionally Yours”—One of the last in this trio’s long line of Top 10 R&B hits, the O’Jays included two takes of it on their 1991 album of the same name, an “R&B Version” and a “Gospel Version.” It had debuted on Dylan’s album Empire Burlesque in 1985.
This ad appeared in the April 10, 1965 issue of Record World.
Joan Osborne—“The Man in the Long Black Coat”—“One of Us,” a smash hit single in 1996, was featured on her album Relish, as was this song. Originally a track on Dylan’s Oh Mercy in 1989, no doubt most of the three million plus people who purchased Relish heard it first on her album. Joan Osborne has since released two full albums’ worth of Dylan songs, Songs of Bob Dylan and Dylanology Live.
Emmylou Harris—“Every Grain of Sand”—Shot of Love, released in 1981 and the last of Dylan’s three gospel albums, included this song. It went relatively unsung until it was covered by Emmylou Harris on her acclaimed album Wrecking Ball in 1995 and has since been recorded by scores of artists, most recently jazz singer Lizz Wright and rocker Chrissie Hynde.
Sheryl Crow, The Dixie Chicks—“Mississippi”—Dylan first recorded this song during sessions in early 1997 for his Grammy-winning album Time Out of Mind. Unsatisfied with the results, he set it aside until finally unveiling it on Love and Theft on September 11, 2001. In the interim, Sheryl Crow included it on her 1998 album The Globe Sessions. And in 2003 the Dixie Chicks introduced it to the country audience on their Top of the World Tour Live.
Related: Our review of the 2025 compilation album I Shall Be Released: Covers of Bob Dylan 1963-1970
- 10 Songs You May Not Know Were Written By Bob Dylan - 11/15/2025
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