Like a Rolling Stone is a 1965 single by Bob Dylan, released by Columbia and opening the album Highway 61 Revisited. It runs six minutes, thirteen seconds and sits in the folk rock genre. The lyrics grew from an extended verse Dylan wrote after a grueling England tour, and the recording was worth a breakthrough when Al Kooper added a Hammond organ and the track was reworked from a piano based, 3 4 time take into a driving electric 4 4 arrangement. Columbia initially hesitated to release such a long song, but a leaked demo and rising radio demand led to its July 20, 1965 release with Gates of Eden as the B side. The song reached number two on the US charts and is widely hailed as a landmark that transformed Dylan from folk icon into a rock star. It is repeatedly listed among the greatest songs of all time by Rolling Stone and others, has been covered by artists from Jimi Hendrix to many others, and in 2014 Dylan’s handwritten lyrics sold for about two million dollars.
