“Mr. Tambourine Man” by The Byrds

The Byrds took Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man", a song he had only just put out on Bringing It All Back Home, and made it the first single of their own career and the title track of their 1965 debut album. They kept just one of Dylan's four verses, the second, and hung it on Roger McGuinn's chiming 12-string guitar, with McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby and Chris Hillman stacking up the voices, Clark on tambourine, Michael Clarke on drums and Terry Melcher producing.

It went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart, and it lit the fuse for folk rock and jangle pop, with bands everywhere copying its bright guitars and brainy words. Dylan himself heard the Byrds working it up at World Pacific Studios late in 1964, and it helped nudge him toward electric instruments. It later made Rolling Stone's 2004 list of the 500 best songs and the Grammy Hall of Fame.

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