“The Weight” by The Band

"The Weight" arrived in 1968, on a single and on Music from Big Pink, the debut album by the Band, and it was the first record they put out under that name after earlier releases as the Canadian Squires and Levon and the Hawks. Robbie Robertson wrote it, and it follows a visitor through what happens to him in a town called Nazareth, a tale that PBS has praised for its Biblical allusions and enigmatic lines.

What makes it is the singing. Levon Helm and Rick Danko take the lead, and Richard Manuel joins them on the harmonies, three voices leaning on each other like tired men at the end of a long road. Robertson's acoustic guitar, Garth Hudson's rolling piano, Danko's bass and Helm's unhurried drums give it the feel of a back-porch hymn. The Band produced it with John Simon.

It barely scraped the US singles chart, stalling at 63, yet it caught fire on album-rock radio, climbed to number three on KHJ's Boss 30 countdown within weeks, and reached 35 in Canada and 21 in Britain. Cash Box called it a powerhouse performance. Rolling Stone later ranked it 41 among the greatest songs of all time, Pitchfork put it 13th among the best of the 1960s, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame counts it among the songs that shaped rock and roll.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.