John Wesley Harding

This article is about the Bob Dylan album. For its title track, see John Wesley Harding (song). For other uses, see John Wesley Harding (disambiguation).

John Wesley Harding
A black-and-white photo of several men standing in a wooded field, with Dylan in the center
Studio album by
Bob Dylan
ReleasedDecember 27, 1967 (1967-12-27)
RecordedOctober 17, November 6 and 29, 1967
StudioColumbia Studio A (Nashville, Tennessee)[1]
Genre
Length38:24
LabelColumbia
ProducerBob Johnston[5]
Bob Dylan chronology
Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits
(1967) 		John Wesley Harding
(1967) 		Nashville Skyline
(1969)
Singles from John Wesley Harding
  1. "Drifter's Escape/John Wesley Harding"
    Released: April 1968
  2. "All Along the Watchtower/I'll Be Your Baby Tonight"
    Released: November 22, 1968

John Wesley Harding is the eighth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on December 27, 1967, by Columbia Records. Produced by Bob Johnston, the album marked Dylan's return to semi-acoustic instrumentation and folk-influenced songwriting after three albums of lyrically abstract, blues-indebted rock music. John Wesley Harding was recorded around the same time as the home recording sessions with The Band known as The Basement Tapes.

John Wesley Harding was well received by critics and sold well, reaching No. 2 on the U.S. charts and topping the UK charts. Less than three months after its release, John Wesley Harding was certified gold by the RIAA. "All Along the Watchtower" became one of his most popular songs after Jimi Hendrix's rendition was released in the autumn of 1968.

The album was included in Robert Christgau's "Basic Record Library" of 1950s and 1960s recordings, published in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981).[6] In 2003, it was ranked number 301 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, moving to 303 in the 2012 version of that list,[7] then to 337 in the 2020 version.[8] It was voted number 203 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's book All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000).[9]

The album is named after Texas outlaw John Wesley Hardin, whose name was misspelled.[10]

  1. ^ Kosser, Michael (2006). How Nashville Became Music City, U.S.A.: A History Of Music Row. Lanham, Maryland, US: Backbeat Books. pp. 149–150. ISBN 978-1-49306-512-7.
  2. ^ Ribowsky, Mark (2015). Whiskey Bottles and Brand-New Cars: The Fast Life and Sudden Death of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Chicago Review Press. p. 44. ISBN 978-1-56976-164-9.
  3. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Bob Dylan | Biography & History". AllMusic. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
  4. ^ Stanley, Bob (September 13, 2013). "I Can't Sing, I Ain't Pretty and My Legs Are Thin: Hard Rock". Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop. Faber & Faber. p. 259. ISBN 978-0-571-28198-5.
  5. ^ Gilliland 1969, show 54, track 4.
  6. ^ Christgau, Robert (1981). "A Basic Record Library: The Fifties and Sixties". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 0899190251. Retrieved March 16, 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
  7. ^ "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on August 30, 2017. Retrieved September 2, 2017.
  8. ^ "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. September 22, 2020. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
  9. ^ Colin Larkin, ed. (2000). All Time Top 1000 Albums (3rd ed.). Virgin Books. p. 101. ISBN 0-7535-0493-6.
  10. ^ Potter, Jordan (April 17, 2023). "Bob Dylan – 'John Wesley Harding' Review". Far Out. Retrieved January 7, 2024.