"Forever Young" | |
---|---|
Song by Bob Dylan | |
from the album Planet Waves | |
Released | January 17, 1974 |
Recorded | November 1973, California |
Genre | Rock |
Length | 4:57 |
Label | Asylum |
Songwriter(s) | Bob Dylan |
Producer(s) | Rob Fraboni |
Audio | |
"Forever Young" (studio version) on YouTube |
"Forever Young" | |
---|---|
Single by Bob Dylan | |
from the album Bob Dylan at Budokan | |
B-side | "All Along the Watchtower" and "I Want You" |
Released | June 22, 1979 |
Genre | Rock |
Length | 5:27 |
Label | Columbia |
Songwriter(s) | Bob Dylan |
Producer(s) | Don DeVito |
Audio | |
"Forever Young" (live, from Bob Dylan at Budokan) on YouTube | |
"Forever Young" (live,28 February 1978 on YouTube | |
"Forever Young" (live,1 March 1978 on YouTube |
"Forever Young" is a song by Bob Dylan,recorded in California in November 1973. The song first appeared,in two different versions,a slow-pace and a fast-pace,on Dylan's fourteenth studio album Planet Waves .
A demo version of the song,recorded in New York City in June 1973,was included on Dylan's 1985 compilation Biograph . In the notes included with that album,Dylan is quoted as saying that he wrote "Forever Young" in Tucson,Arizona,"thinking about" one of his sons and "not wanting to be too sentimental".
A live version of the song,recorded in Tokyo on 28 February 1978 and included on Dylan's album Bob Dylan at Budokan ,was released as a European single in 1979.
Written as a lullaby for his eldest son Jesse,born in 1966,Dylan's song relates a father's hopes that his child will remain strong and happy. It opens with the lines,'May God bless and keep you always / May your wishes all come true',echoing the priestly blessing from the Book of Numbers,which has lines that begin:'May the Lord bless you and guard you / May the Lord make His face shed light upon you.' Not wishing to sound 'too sentimental',Dylan included two versions of the song on the album Planet Waves,one a lullaby and the other more rock-oriented. [1]
In notes on "Forever Young" written for the 2007 album Dylan ,Bill Flanagan writes that Dylan and the Band "got together and quickly knocked off an album, Planet Waves ,that featured two versions of a blessing from a parent to a child. In the years he was away from stage,Dylan had become a father. He had that in common with a good chunk of the audience. The song was memorably recited on American television by Howard Cosell when Muhammad Ali won the heavyweight crown for the third time." [2]
According to his website,Dylan performed the song live 493 times between its live debut in 1974 and its last outing in 2011. [5] This includes a duet with Bruce Springsteen at the Concert for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland,OH in 1995. [6] Dylan also performed the song live on the Late Show with David Letterman in 1993. [7] Dylan and The Band,who originally recorded the song together for the Planet Waves album,performed "Forever Young" live at The Band's 1976 farewell concert,"The Last Waltz". This live performance was included in the concert film The Last Waltz,directed by Martin Scorsese. [8]
Rod Stewart recorded a song titled "Forever Young" that was released as a single and included on his 1988 album Out of Order . Stewart's manager,Arnold Stiefel,said,"[I]t would be fair to say that while the melody and the music is not at all the same [as Dylan's song],the idea of the song is similar. The architecture of the lyrics of the song is very much from Dylan–there are definite similarities." The similarities were enough to cause Stiefel to contact Dylan,who requested a share of the royalties,and Stewart agreed. [9] His version charted at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US,while it made #57 in the UK Singles Chart on its release in 1988,and #55 on re-release in 2013. [10]
In 1974 Joan Baez covered "Forever Young" as a single. It reached 13 on the US Adult Contemporary charts.
In 1979,former Hot Chocolate member Tony Wilson covered the song which appears on his album "Catch One".
Michael Jackson's sister Rebbie Jackson covered "Forever Young" for Free Willy 2:The Adventure Home soundtrack in 1995.
"Forever Young" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by Louisa Johnson | ||||
Released | 13 December 2015 | |||
Recorded | December 2015 | |||
Length | 3:23 | |||
Label | ||||
Songwriter(s) | Bob Dylan | |||
Producer(s) |
| |||
Louisa Johnson singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
Live video | ||||
"Forever Young" (2015,at The X-Factor UK) on YouTube | ||||
Audio | ||||
"Forever Young" (studio version) on YouTube |
In December 2015,Louisa Johnson,the winner of the twelfth series of The X Factor ,released a cover version of "Forever Young" as her winner's single. It was released on December 13,2015,immediately after Johnson won. [11] Johnson performed the song live on The X Factor final. [11] She also performed it on Text Santa . Johnson's version entered the UK Singles Chart on December 18 at number nine,and was the first X Factor winner single not to reach number one on UK Radio,however it was Top for 5 week on Official Physical Single Charts during Holiday 2015 to Early 2016. [12] The song has sold 99,648 copies in the UK as of June 2016. [13]
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Forever Young" | |
2. | "God Only Knows" | |
3. | "Let It Go" | |
4. | "Forever Young" (Instrumental) |
Chart (2015) | Peak position |
---|---|
Ireland (IRMA) [15] | 5 |
Scotland (OCC) [16] | 2 |
UK Singles (OCC) [17] | 9 |
UK Physical Singles Reached #1 for 5 weeks in a row, holiday season 2015 to early 2016.
Region | Date | Format | Label |
---|---|---|---|
United Kingdom | December 13, 2015 |
Dylan lent his name, voice, and song as the theme to the television show Parenthood . Lucy Schwartz sang "When We Were Young" in seasons 1–6 internationally. On August 31, 2010, Arrival Records/Scion Music Group released a soundtrack for Parenthood. The soundtrack includes both theme songs for Parenthood, "Forever Young" by Bob Dylan, and the international theme, "When We Were Young" by Lucy Schwartz. It also includes a cover of "Forever Young" performed by John Doe and Lucy Schwartz. Rhiannon Giddens and Iron & Wine's version appeared in the series finale titled "May God Bless and Keep You Always" which derives from the opening lyrics to "Forever Young". [18]
The lyrics to “Forever Young” were published as a children's book along with illustrations by illustrator Paul Rogers. Rogers's visual interpretation of “Forever Young” includes references to Bob Dylan's life and livelihood juxtaposed against the backdrop of the social and political climate. [19]
Jaime Royal Robertson was a Canadian musician of Indigenous ancestry. He was lead guitarist for Bob Dylan in the mid-late 1960s and early-mid 1970s, guitarist and songwriter with The Band from their inception until 1978, and a solo artist.
Alphaville is a German synthpop band formed in Münster in 1982. They gained popularity in the 1980s. The group was founded by singers Marian Gold, Bernhard Lloyd, and Frank Mertens. They achieved chart success with the singles "Forever Young", "Big in Japan", "Sounds Like a Melody", "The Jet Set", and "Dance with Me". Gold remains the only continuous original member of Alphaville. They took their name from Jean-Luc Godard's film Alphaville.
"Knockin' on Heaven's Door" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, written for the soundtrack of the 1973 film Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Released as a single two months after the film's premiere, it became a worldwide hit, reaching the Top 10 in several countries. The song became one of Dylan's most popular and most covered post-1960s compositions, spawning covers from Eric Clapton, Guns N' Roses, Randy Crawford, and more.
"My Back Pages" is a song written by Bob Dylan and included on his 1964 album Another Side of Bob Dylan. It is stylistically similar to his earlier folk protest songs and features Dylan's voice with an acoustic guitar accompaniment. However, its lyrics—in particular the refrain "Ah, but I was so much older then/I'm younger than that now"—have been interpreted as a rejection of Dylan's earlier personal and political idealism, illustrating his growing disillusionment with the 1960s folk protest movement with which he was associated, and his desire to move in a new direction. Although Dylan wrote the song in 1964, he did not perform it live until 1988. However, during his 1978 tour, his band played a brief instrumental version of it as Dylan took the stage.
The Last Waltz is the second live album by the Band, released on Warner Bros. Records in 1978, catalogue 3WS 3146. It is the soundtrack to the 1978 film of the same name, and the final album by the original configuration of the Band. It peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard 200.
Planet Waves is the fourteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on January 17, 1974, by Asylum Records in the United States and Island Records in the United Kingdom.
"Tennessee Waltz" is a popular country music song with lyrics by Redd Stewart and music by Pee Wee King written in 1946 and first released in January 1948. The song became a multimillion seller via a 1950 recording – as "The Tennessee Waltz" – by Patti Page.
"Lay Lady Lay", sometimes rendered "Lay, Lady, Lay", is a song written by Bob Dylan and originally released in 1969 on his Nashville Skyline album. Like many of the tracks on the album, Dylan sings the song in a low croon, rather than in the high nasal singing style associated with his earlier recordings. The song has become a standard and has been covered by numerous bands and artists over the years.
"Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)" is a folk-rock song written and first recorded by Bob Dylan in 1967 during the Basement Tapes sessions. The song's first release was in January 1968 as "Mighty Quinn" in a version by the British band Manfred Mann, which became a great success. It has been recorded by a number of performers, often under the "Mighty Quinn" title.
"All I Really Want to Do" is a song written by Bob Dylan and featured on his Tom Wilson-produced 1964 album, Another Side of Bob Dylan. It is arguably one of the most popular songs that Dylan wrote in the period immediately after he abandoned topical songwriting. Within a year of its release on Another Side of Bob Dylan, it had also become one of Dylan's most familiar songs to pop and rock audiences, due to hit cover versions by Cher and the Byrds.
"Positively 4th Street" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan, first recorded in New York City on July 29, 1965. It was released as a single by Columbia Records on September 7, 1965, reaching No. 1 on Canada's RPM chart, No. 7 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and No. 8 on the UK Singles Chart. Rolling Stone magazine ranked the song as No. 203 in their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list.
"Forever Young" is a song by German synth-pop band Alphaville from their first album Forever Young (1984). The single was successful in Scandinavia and in the European German-speaking countries in the same year.
"This Wheel's on Fire" is a song written by Bob Dylan and Rick Danko. It was originally recorded by Dylan and the Band during their 1967 sessions, portions of which comprised the 1975 album, The Basement Tapes. The Band's own version appeared on their 1968 album, Music from Big Pink. A version by Julie Driscoll with Brian Auger and the Trinity became a hit in 1968, peaking at number 5 on the UK Singles Chart and at number 13 in Canada. Live versions by the Band appear on their 1972 live double album Rock of Ages, as well as the more complete four-CD-DVD version of that concert, Live at the Academy of Music 1971, and the 2002 Box Set of The Last Waltz.
"Make You Feel My Love", also known as "To Make You Feel My Love", is a song written by Bob Dylan for his album Time Out of Mind, released in September 1997. It was first released commercially in August 1997 by Billy Joel for his compilation album Greatest Hits Volume III.
"You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" is a song written by American musician Bob Dylan in 1967 in Woodstock, New York, during the self-imposed exile from public appearances that followed his July 29, 1966 motorcycle accident. A recording of Dylan performing the song in September 1971 was released on the Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II album in November of that year, marking the first official release of the song by its author. Earlier 1967 recordings of the song, performed by Dylan and the Band, were issued on the 1975 album The Basement Tapes and the 2014 album The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete.
"Gotta Serve Somebody" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released as the opening track on his 1979 studio album Slow Train Coming. It won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Male in 1980. It was later anthologized on the compilation albums Biograph (1985), Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume 3 (1994), The Essential Bob Dylan (2000), The Best of Bob Dylan and Dylan (2007).
"Forever Young" is a song by British singer-songwriter Rod Stewart, first released on his 1988 album Out of Order. The song was a Top 20 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #12, and #9 on the Canadian RPM Magazine charts.
"This Night Won't Last Forever" is a song written by Bill LaBounty and Roy Freeland, and originally recorded by LaBounty in 1978, whose version of the song was a minor Adult Contemporary and pop hit, reaching number 65 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Marlisa Ann Punzalan, also known simply as Marlisa, is an Australian singer. She won the sixth season of The X Factor Australia in 2014, aged 15, the youngest contestant to have won the show. Punzalan subsequently received a recording contract with Sony Music Australia and released her debut single "Stand by You", which debuted at number two on the ARIA Singles Chart and was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association. This was followed by the release of her self-titled debut album Marlisa, which debuted at number six the ARIA Albums Chart and was certified gold. "Stand by You" was nominated for the ARIA Award for Song of the Year in 2015.
Louisa Johnson, also known mononymously as Louisa, is an English singer. In 2015, she won the twelfth series of The X Factor. She subsequently released her winner's single "Forever Young", which peaked at number nine on the UK Singles Chart. In 2016, she was featured on Clean Bandit's UK top five single "Tears".