--- title: 5 Surprising Facts About Bob Dylan's Best-Selling Albums and Songs description: With Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, here are some surprising facts about how well (or not) Dylan's albums and songs have sold over the years. authors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Lifestyle - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2016-10-13T17:52:28.000Z' modified: '2024-05-16T11:51:25.000Z' section: Lifestyle tags: - Bob Dylan - Music - nobel prize - pubdesk - rock music word_count: 566 canonical: https://money.com/bob-dylan-nobel-prize-best-selling-albums-songs/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Bob Dylan File Photos](https://img.money.com/2016/10/gettyimages-135427308.jpg?crop=0px%2C44px%2C3000px%2C1687px&quality=85) On Thursday, Bob Dylan received the [Nobel Prize for Literature](https://time.com/4529418/bob-dylan-nobel-prize-literature/) "for having created [new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition](https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/)." He's the 113th writer to win the award, and Dylan has made history as the first ever musician to grab the crown. On the one hand, Dylan is one of the most widely known and commercially successful artists to have ever received the award. On the other, many of his Nobel-winning predecessors more or less are "like a complete unknown" to mainstream audiences, to quote Dylan, even after being awarded the title. (We're guessing most "Jeopardy" players couldn't name the last two winners in literature: Svetlana Alexievich and Patrick Modiano.) For all of Dylan's acclaim and notoriety, and also for how phenomenally prolific "the voice of a generation" has been—he's still touring and putting out new albums—you might assume he is one of the best-selling artists of all time. Hardcore Dylan fans know that just isn't the case. Consider the following: **He's Never Recorded a #1 Song** According to [Billboard](http://www.billboard.com/artist/293235/bob-dylan/chart), two of Dylan's songs have reached #2 on the charts, both in the mid-1960s:"Like a Rolling Stone" in 1965 and "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" (which is probably better known as "Everybody Must Get Stoned") in 1966. A handful of other hits landed in the top 20, also in the 1960s or early 1970s, but a song sung by Dylan has never topped the charts. **One Dylan Song Did Hit #1, However** In 1965, The Byrds released "Mr. Tambourine Man," which was written by Dylan, and it indeed rose to #1 on the charts. Peter, Paul & Mary's version of Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" hit the #2 spot a couple years earlier too. ***Read Next:* [Here’s What a Pulitzer Prize Does for a Book’s Amazon Sales Rank](https://money.com/pulitzer-prize-amazon-sales/)** **He Didn't Have a #1 Album in the 1960s** Bob Dylan had [sold 10 million records](http://www.billboard.com/artist/293235/bob-dylan/biography) around the globe by 1966, but none of his widely acclaimed albums from the '60s—including "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan," "The Times They Are a-Changin,'" "Highway 61 Revisited," and "Blonde on Blonde"—topped the charts in the U.S. Instead, it wasn't until the 1974 release of "Planet Waves" that Dylan had his [first #1 album](http://www.musictimes.com/articles/30112/20150301/bob-dylan-number-one-albums-wont-guess-classics-didnt-top-billboard-200.htm). (It's probably best known for the song "Forever Young," which was the inspiration for a hit single for Rod Stewart in the 1980s.) Overall, Bob Dylan has sold well over [40 million albums](http://www.statisticbrain.com/top-selling-music-artists-of-all-time/), and has had several chart-topping records over the decades, including 2015's ["Shadows in the Night."](http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/6472850/bob-dylan-number-one) **No Dylan Album Is in the Top 200 for Sales** [Billboard's list](http://www.billboard.com/charts/greatest-billboard-200-albums) of the top-selling 200 albums of all time includes three entries from Nickelback, two records apiece from Creed and N Sync, and soundtracks from movies like "The Sound of Music," "Mary Poppins," and "Dr. Zhivago." What the list doesn't have is a single album from Bob Dylan. Still, there's some Dylan in there, most noticeably, with the 1963 Peter, Paul & Mary album "In the Wind" (#178 for most sales ever) featuring "Blowin' in the Wind" and two other Dylan songs. ***Read Next:* [How Bob Dylan Mastered the Music Business](https://money.com/bob-dylan-money-music-business/)** **But Dylan Has the Best Song Ever** "Like a Rolling Stone" may have never been a #1 single, but it is ranked as the greatest song of all time by [*Rolling Stone*](http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/the-500-greatest-songs-of-all-time-20110407/bob-dylan-like-a-rolling-stone-20110516) magazine—which took its name from the song when the publication was founded in 1967. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/bob-dylan-nobel-prize-best-selling-albums-songs/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Lifestyle", "item": "https://money.com/lifestyle/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Music", "item": "https://money.com/music/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "5 Surprising Facts About Bob Dylan's Best-Selling Albums and Songs" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/bob-dylan-nobel-prize-best-selling-albums-songs/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/bob-dylan-nobel-prize-best-selling-albums-songs/", "name": "5 Surprising Facts About Bob Dylan's Best-Selling Albums and Songs", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-10-13T17:52:28.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/bob-dylan-nobel-prize-best-selling-albums-songs/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/bob-dylan-nobel-prize-best-selling-albums-songs/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-05-16T11:51:25.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "5 Surprising Facts About Bob Dylan's Best-Selling Albums and Songs", "articleSection": "Lifestyle", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/10/gettyimages-135427308.jpg?crop=0px%2C44px%2C3000px%2C1687px&quality=85", "width": 1012, "height": 569, "caption": "161013_EM_BobDylan" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brad Tuttle", "url": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/#author", "description": "Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.\r\n\r\n", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/01/Brad-Tuttle.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1", "alumniOf": "Columbia University School of Journalism, MS", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle", "https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-10-13T17:52:28.000Z", "description": "With Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, here are some surprising facts about how well (or not) Dylan's albums and songs have sold over the years.", "abstract": "With Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, here are some surprising facts about how well (or not) Dylan's albums and songs have sold over the years.", "@id": "https://money.com/bob-dylan-nobel-prize-best-selling-albums-songs/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-05-16T11:51:25.000Z", "wordCount": 566, "keywords": [ "Bob Dylan", "Music", "nobel prize", "pubdesk", "rock music" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Lifestyle", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifestyle" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Music", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music" ] } ] } ] } ```