Song · Bob Dylan
“If Not for You” by Bob Dylan
From the album New Morning (1970)
“If Not for You” by Bob Dylan appears on 6 radio countdowns from 4 stations between 2009 and 2026. It was first released in 1970 on the album New Morning. Its best result is #154 on the KSHE 95 U-Man 500 (2026). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #5,593 indie & aaa song of all time.
Bob Dylan wrote "If Not for You" as a love song to his first wife, Sara, and it came out on New Morning in October 1970, about as plainspoken as a love song gets. He chased it through several sessions that year before landing the keeper in New York in August, with Bob Johnston producing, and early in 1971 European fans got it as an A-side.
Nobody could hear the take that set tongues wagging: on May 1, 1970, just after the Beatles came apart, Dylan cut the song with George Harrison, and that version sat in the vault until The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 in 1991. The two ran through it again in 1971, rehearsing for the Concert for Bangladesh at Madison Square Garden, and the footage turned up early in the 1972 film.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 832 | WXPN | WXPN 885 Desert Island Songs (2009) | 885 |
| 2019 | 952 | WYEP | WYEP Labor Day Weekend Countdown 2019 | 1099 |
| 2019 | 952 | WYEP | WYEP Big Spring Countdown 2019 | 1017 |
| 2020 | 1571 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2022 | 785 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '70s | 908 |
| 2026 | 154 | KSHE 95 | KSHE 95 U-Man 500 (2026) | 499 |
Also listed as: If Not For You.
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