Song · Bob Dylan
“All Along the Watchtower” by Bob Dylan
From the album John Wesley Harding (1967)
“All Along the Watchtower” by Bob Dylan appears on 14 radio countdowns from 6 stations between 1996 and 2026. It was first released in 1967 on the album John Wesley Harding. Its best result is #29 on the WXPN 885 Desert Island Songs (2009). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #503 indie & aaa song of all time.
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"All Along the Watchtower" sits at the heart of John Wesley Harding, Bob Dylan's eighth album, from 1967, and it's as lean as he ever got: twelve lines, a joker and a thief trading words, and more questions than answers. Some reviewers have heard echoes of the Book of Isaiah in it; nobody has pinned it down for good.
Bob Johnston produced, and the sound is stripped to the bone: Dylan's guitar and harmonica, Charlie McCoy on bass and Kenny Buttrey on drums, nothing wasted. Dylan didn't play it live until his 1974 tour with the Band, his first time on the road since 1966, but once he started he never stopped. It's the song he has performed more than any other, well over 2,250 times, and those later versions lean so hard on Jimi Hendrix's reading that they've been called covers of a cover.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
Classic Rock
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 275 | WNEW-FM | WNEW Firecracker 500 (1996) | 500 |
| 2001 | 281 | WFPK | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2000 |
| 2004 | 295 | WXPN | WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Songs (2004) | 885 |
| 2007 | 324 | WTMD | WTMD Top 897 Songs of All Time | 897 |
| 2009 | 29 | WXPN | WXPN 885 Desert Island Songs (2009) | 885 |
| 2012 | 281 | WYEP | WYEP Top 500 Songs Countdown | 500 |
| 2014 | 451 | WXPN | WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Songs (2014) | 885 |
| 2020 | 601 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2022 | 937 | Q104.3 | Q104.3 Top 1,043 Classic Rock Songs of All Time (2022) | 1043 |
| 2023 | 943 | Q104.3 | Q104.3 Top 1,043 Classic Rock Songs of All Time (2023) | 1043 |
| 2023 | 456 | WYEP | WYEP Countdown to Fall 2023 | 1229 |
| 2024 | 960 | Q104.3 | Q104.3 Top 1,043 Classic Rock Songs of All Time (2024) | 1043 |
| 2025 | 541 | Q104.3 | Q104.3 Top 1,043 Classic Rock Songs of All Time (2025) | 1043 |
| 2026 | 513 | WYEP | WYEP Greatest Songs of All Time | 1180 |
Also listed as: All Along The Watchtower.
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