Bob Dylan's 1997 Love Song Is So Iconic The Biggest Names In Music Couldn't Resist Covering It
By 1997, Bob Dylan hadn't had an influential hit in years — and then he included a moving love song on a new album that helped trigger a comeback and inspire hundreds of covers. "Make You Feel My Love" was buried deep on Dylan's LP "Time Out of Mind." Released in '97, the critically adored album debuted and peaked at No. 10 and sold a million copies, but "Make You Feel My Love" was never a chart-topper or even a single. Nevertheless, the soaring, piano-driven song full of simple and earnest declarations of love was too sweet and powerful to not find an audience.
The demographic that Dylan made fall in love with "Make You Feel My Love" was other major musicians. That song regarding the persistence of powerful romantic feelings has been covered well over 450 times, with some of the artists as high-profile as its originator. Dylan may be a rock legend with zero No. 1 hits, but there are other ways to measure success — like writing a song that became quickly and deeply entrenched. Here's the story of the rise of Bob Dylan's "Make You Feel My Love."
Dylan's song has been a big hit for lots of other people
The general public heard a cover of Bob Dylan's "Make You Feel My Love" before the original. In the lead-up to the release of "Time Out of My Mind," the musician's team offered its songs to other artists to build a hospitable environment. Columbia Records needed a new single for Billy Joel's "Greatest Hits Volume III," and so the slightly retitled "To Make You Feel My Love" premiered there and in that version weeks before "Time Out of Mind" hit stores. Joel's take on Dylan's song hit No. 9 on the adult contemporary chart in August 1997.
The tune factored into the life of Garth Brooks when the mega-star's "To Make You Feel My Love" appeared on the soundtrack of the 1998 drama "Hope Floats" alongside another cover by Trisha Yearwood. Brooks took his to No. 1 on the country chart and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Country Song.
Among the other luminaries to take on "Make You Feel My Love": Michael Bolton, Willie Nelson (with Engelbert Humperdinck), Neil Diamond, Boy George, and Adele. It's the only non-original on the initial release of Adele's 2008 debut "19," and issued as a single, it was a No. 4 hit in the U.K. "Make You Feel My Love" didn't hit any major charts for Dylan, but it certainly drummed up attention for "Time Out of Mind." That LP won him Grammy Awards for Contemporary Folk Album and Album of the Year.