WCSX Classic Cuts : Mr. Tambourine Man

WCSX Classic Cuts

The Byrds: "Mr. Tambourine Man"

The Hook: "Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me -- just make sure it's under two-and-a-half minutes."

Album: Mr. Tambourine Man

Year: 1965

Writer: Bob Dylan

Stats: Topped the Billboard Hot 100.

The Background: Five days after Bob Dylan cut "Mr. Tambourine Man" for his Bringing It All Back Home album at Columbia Studios in New York, a new L.A. group called The Byrds recorded a much shorter version of the five-and-a-half-minute song at Columbia Studios in Hollywood. Frontman Roger McGuinn recalls editing it to two minutes and 18 seconds for their debut single.

Roger McGuinn on cutting down Bob Dylan's lengthy "Mr. Tambourine Man" for The Byrds’ cover version. OC:...different form. :14

"I'd go through it and pick out the part that made the most sense to me and use it. It was kind of a fun thing to do. It was like taking this epic thing and finding the part of it that really spoke to you, putting it in a different form."