It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue

Written and first recorded by Bob Dylan (1965).
Hit versions by Them (1965 |GER #12 1973), The Byrds (from the Easy Rider soundtrack 1969).
Also recorded by Dion (1965), The Byrds (1965, released 1987), (as “Baby Blue”) by The Seldom Scene (1973), The Animals (1977).

Live performance, 1966:

From the wiki: “‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue’ was written and performed by Bob Dylan and featured on his 1965 Bringing It All Back Home album. The song was originally recorded with Dylan’s acoustic guitar and harmonica and William E. Lee’s bass guitar the only instrumentation. Dylan’s two previous albums, The Times They Are A-Changin’ and Another Side of Bob Dylan both ended with a farewell song, ‘Restless Farewell’ and ‘It Ain’t Me, Babe’ respectively. ‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue’ concludes Bringing It All Back Home in consistent fashion. Dylan played the song for Donovan in his hotel room during his May 1965 tour of England in a scene shown in the D. A. Pennebaker documentary Don’t Look Back; a version of the song is also included on the soundtrack to Martin Scorsese’s documentary No Direction Home. In a 2005 readers’ poll reported in Mojo, ‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue’ was listed as the #10 all-time-best Bob Dylan song.

“The Byrds recorded the song twice in 1965 as a possible follow up single to ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ and ‘All I Really Want to Do’, but neither recording was released in that form. (The first attempt at recording the song resulted in an irreverent, garage rock style take on the song that went unreleased until 1987.) The Byrds attempted a second recording of the song during August 1965. A program director from Los Angeles radio station KRLA, who was present at the recording sessions, was impressed enough to play an acetate disc of the track on air, plugging it as The Byrds’ new single. However, The Byrds soon abandoned the idea of releasing ‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue’ as their third single and instead issued the song ‘Turn! Turn! Turn!’. The Byrds did release a 1969 recording of the song on their Ballad of Easy Rider album.

“Them’s version, released in 1966, influenced garage bands during the mid-60’s. Them’s interpretation of the song, with Morrison as vocalist, became influential during the years 1966 and 1967, with several garage rock bands, including The Chocolate Watchband and The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, recording versions of the song that were indebted to Them’s cover version – first released on their album, Them Again, and subsequently issued as a single (b/w ‘I’m Gonna Dress in Black’) in the Netherlands during October 1966 but failed to reach the Dutch Singles Chart. It was later re-released in Germany in December 1973 following its appearance in the 1972 German television movie, Die Rocker (aka Rocker), and became a hit single there in 1974.

“Other cover versions include one recorded by Dion six months prior to Them’s original late 1965 recording, along with a long list of Dylan peers and contemporaries: The Seldom Scene, The Animals, The Country Gentlemen, Judy Collins, Joni Mitchell, Marianne Faithfull, Bryan Ferry, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, Echo & the Bunnymen, Falco, Jon Fratelli, the Grateful Dead, The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, The Chocolate Watchband, Richie Havens, Steve Howe, The 13th Floor Elevators, Hole, Graham Bonnet and Chris Farlowe.”

Dion, “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” (1965):