Songwriting was revolutionized in the 1960s by many incredible artists, including Bob Dylan, one of the leading figures of that generation. He showed that it was possible to go beyond the two-minute songs that mostly talked about love. Dylan directly inspired other groundbreaking artists such as The Beatles, who took his ideas even further and changed the course of Rock and Roll music.
He has always been a fan of the Fab Four and throughout his career, has mentioned that he liked several of their songs. Rock and Roll Garage selected three that Dylan has praised and explains why he liked them.
The 3 Beatles songs Bob Dylan praised
“Do You Want To Know A Secret”
The first one is “Do You Want to Know a Secret”, which was featured on their 1963 debut album “Please Please Me”. Bob Dylan praised the song in his book “Chronicles: Vol. 1” (2004), recalling when he listened to it over the radio. “The radio was on from beyond a wall and the sound was coming through in static. The Beatles were singing, ‘Do You Want to Know a Secret.’ They were so easy to accept, so solid. I remembered when they first came out. They offered intimacy and companionship like no other group. Their songs would create an empire. It seemed like a long time ago. ‘Do You Want to Know a Secret.’ A perfect ’50s sappy love ballad and nobody but them could do it. Somehow there was nothing wussy about it. The Beatles blasted away (…)” Bob Dylan said.
Curiously, “Do You Want to Know a Secret” was sung by George Harrison, who also played acoustic guitar and would later become Bob’s closest friend from the band. They would record together and become bandmates a couple of decades later in the supergroup the Traveling Wilburys, which also included Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, and Tom Petty.
Although the track was mentioned by Dylan, it’s not among The Beatles’ most famous tracks from that record. It was overshadowed by songs like “I Saw Her Standing There”, “Love Me Do” and the cover of “Twist and Shout”.
“I Want To Hold Your Hand”
When asked by NME in 2015 to list his favorite Beatles song, Bob Dylan chose “I Want To Hold Your Hand”, which was released as a single by them in 1963. “They were doing things nobody was doing. Their chords were outrageous, just outrageous, and their harmonies made it all valid… I knew they were pointing the direction of where music had to go,” Bob Dylan said.
Credited to Lennon and McCartney, it became one of The Beatles’ biggest early hits. It was their first American number-one hit, marking the start of the “British Invasion” in the American market. It first entered the Billboard Hot 100 charts at number 45 and quickly reached the first position staying at the top for seven weeks, before being replaced by themselves, with the song “She Loves You”.
“I Want to Hold Your Hand” eventually became their best-selling single worldwide, with an estimated 12 million copies sold. That’s more than many famous bands and artists ever sold in their entire careers. In the United Kingdom, it became the second best-selling single of the 1960s, ranking only behind “She Loves You”.
“Paperback Writer”
The third one is “Paperback Writer”, released as a single in 1966. Although it was credited to Lennon and McCartney, it was primarily written by Paul. Dylan praised the track when talking with The Wall Street Journal in 2022 about how the current music that is being made sounds very much the same, like an industrial thing being made.
“What’s the gold standard for a song these days? What song will walk off with the trophy? ‘Paint it Black’ is black as black can be, black as a crow’s head, a galvanizing song. ‘Paperback Writer’ sounds good, too. The biographer, the ghost writer, doing it long hand. I can visualize that song (that could be created); see it in my mind’s eye. ‘Strangers in the Night,’ that, too. A couple of people who don’t know each other on the dark side of things. I don’t know which one I’d vote for. I have sympathies for them all,” Bob Dylan said.
Most of The Beatles’ singles were hits, but some were bigger than others. Even though “Paperback Writer” was a big hit, it’s not among their biggest ones. When it was released, the track topped the charts in countries such as the United Kingdom, United States, Ireland, West Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and Norway. On the American Billboard Hot 100, it stayed at number one for two weeks before being replaced by Frank Sinatra’s “Strangers in the Night”.