Bob Dylan’s Favorite Beatles Song Is an Understandable Choice
Bob Dylan was one of the most important musicians to The Beatles. His music inspired several Fab Four songs, and it’s probably not a coincidence that the troubadour controversially went electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival after The Beatles stormed the United States. Still, Dylan’s favorite Beatles song wasn’t one of their complex tunes but one of their relatively straightforward early songs.
Bob Dylan named ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ his favorite Beatles song because of the chords and harmonies
Many music fans call The Fab Four’s Revolver the first psychedelic record. “Helter Skelter” might have been the first heavy metal song. The popularity of the White Album paved the way for other classic rock bands to release double LPs.
Yet for all the groundbreaking moves they made later in their career, Dylan said his favorite Beatles song was one of their early ones — “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”
Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the song together fairly quickly in a basement. They created a world-conquering pop song by bouncing riffs and lyrics off each other as they normally did. Dylan glimpsed the future of music in “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” The tune, which lasted just 2:25, left enough of an impact that he called it his favorite Beatles song even after he understood the scope of their career (via NME):
“They were doing things nobody was doing. Their chords were outrageous, just outrageous, and their harmonies made it all valid. I knew they were pointing the direction of where music had to go.”
Bob dylan
Dylan’s preferred Beatles tune might seem like a basic choice, but his love for “I Want to Hold Your Hand” is understandable. Like other early Beatles songs, it featured a wonderful melody, plenty of vocal harmonies, and tight musicianship. What set it apart from earlier hits was that the guitars set the hook. The opening notes wonderfully foreshadow the emotional heart of the song — the “I can’t hide” lyrics that enter the 1:04 and 1:45 marks of the song. You could call it The Beatles’ first guitar-centric hit song. It was a No. 1 hit even though it never made it onto an album.
Unsurprisingly, Dylan wasn’t alone in heaping praise on “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”
Other musicians joined Dylan in praising ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’
Dylan’s love for “I Want to Hold Your Hand” comes with a funny story.
The first time he met The Beatles in August 1964, he passed on the pills they offered and suggested they smoke pot instead. The Fab Four had never gotten high that way, but Dylan thought they had. He didn’t understand the lyrics “I can’t hide,” thinking The Beatles sang “I get high” instead.
The performer born Robert Zimmerman wasn’t the only musician who named “I Want to Hold Your Hand” their favorite Beatles song.
Peter Asher witnessed the song being written in the basement of his childhood home. (McCartney was dating Asher’s sister, Jane, at the time and living with the family). When John and Paul played their new composition for him, he said it was the greatest song he ever heard.
Queen guitar maestro Brian May said “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was the best teen pop song of all time. Shock rocker Alice Cooper couldn’t hide his love for the tune. He said writing a relatively basic song yet having it still be perfect would be harder than writing Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
Of the hundreds of choices, Bob Dylan’s favorite Beatles song was one of their earliest hits — “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” It’s the song that launched a thousand careers when teenage fans saw the band perform it on The Ed Sullivan Show. Zim wasn’t the only one with a soft spot for the tune.
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