On this day in music: Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits peaked at No. 10 on US charts
By Renee Hansen
In 1967 singer-songwriter Bob Dylan released an album of his greatest hits that was used as a filler between studio albums while Dylan recovered from a motorcycle accident. On June 12, 1967, the album hit No. 10 on the US charts.
Bob Dylan's first compilation album, Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, features all of his Top 40 singles released until 1967 and some popular songs recorded by other artists. The album reached No. 10 in the US, making it his best seller in the US and No. 3 in the UK. Released between Blonde on Blonde and John Wesley Harding, the Greatest Hits album has been certified platinum five times.
Rowland Scherman took the cover photo of Dylan at a concert on November 28, 1965, in Washington, D.C. Bob Cato was the designer of the album cover that would win the 1967 Grammy for Best Album Cover, Photography. The original album included Milton Glaser's famous psychedelic poster of Dylan.
Dylan's motorcycle accident occurred on July 29, 1966, while driving his Triumph Tiger 100 in Woodstock, New York. The accident was shrouded in mystery as Dylan reported broke several vertebrae in his neck but was never hospitalized, nor was an ambulance called to the scene. His biographers have noted that it allowed Dylan to escape the pressures often experienced as a musician. He agreed with this, made few public appearances, and didn't tour for eight years.
": "I had been in a motorcycle accident and I'd been hurt, but I recovered. Truth was that I wanted to get out of the rat race.""
- Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits
Of the songs on the album, "Rain Day Women #12 & 35" and "Like A Rolling Stone" were the top hits, both reaching No. 2. "Positively 4th Street" peaked at No. 7, and surprisingly "Blowin' in the Wind" did not chart.
In 1999 Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits would be reissued on disc with a more extended version of "Positively 4th Street." In 2003 all three of Dylan's greatest hits would be released in a four-disc boxed set as Greatest Hits Volumes I-III.
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