"Blowin' in the Wind" is a protest song written and composed by Bob Dylan in 1962. It was first performed in public at Gerde's Folk City in New York on April 16, 1962, in a two-verse version, with a middle verse added shortly afterwards. Dylan recorded it on July 9, 1962, and it appeared on his album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan in May 1963, followed by a single release in August 1963. The song is built on a series of rhetorical questions about peace, war and freedom, and its refrain, "The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind", gives it its title. Its melody is reportedly drawn from the spiritual "No More Auction Block". The song became an anthem of the civil rights movement, helped by covers: the Chad Mitchell Trio recorded it first, and Peter, Paul and Mary's June 1963 version reached number two on the Billboard pop chart and won two Grammy Awards. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, the song in 1994 and the recording in 2003, and ranked 14th on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004. Sam Cooke, Stevie Wonder, Marlene Dietrich and Dionne Warwick also recorded it, and it was used in the film Forrest Gump (1994).
