[3] In June 1963, Peter, Paul and Mary released a cover version of "Blowin' in the Wind" three weeks after The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan was issued.
Bobby Darin recorded "Blowin' in the Wind" on July 30, 1963, for inclusion on his album, Golden Folk Hits, also released in 1963.
Arranged by Walter Raim, there was Roger Mcguinn, Glen Campbell, James Burton, and Phil Ochs all on guitar, and singing harmony.
In his sleeve notes for The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991, John Bauldie wrote that Pete Seeger first identified the melody of "Blowin' in the Wind" as an adaptation of the old African-American spiritual "No More Auction Block/We Shall Overcome".
"[8] Dylan's performance of "No More Auction Block" was recorded at the Gaslight Cafe in October 1962, and appeared on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991.
[10] In Martin Scorsese's documentary on Dylan, No Direction Home, Mavis Staples expressed her astonishment on first hearing the song and said she could not understand how a young white man could write something that captured the frustration and aspirations of black people so powerfully.
[14] Peter, Paul and Mary's version of the song also spent five weeks atop the easy listening chart.
Prior to this, efforts like "The Ballad of Donald White" and "The Death of Emmett Till" had been fairly simplistic bouts of reportage songwriting.
Whereas "The Ballad of Donald White" would become completely redundant as soon as the eponymous criminal was executed, a song as vague as "Blowin' in the Wind" could be applied to just about any freedom issue.
It remains the song with which Dylan's name is most inextricably linked, and safeguarded his reputation as a civil libertarian through any number of changes in style and attitude.
An allegation that the song was written by a high-school student named Lorre Wyatt (a member of Millburn High School's "Millburnaires" all-male folk band) and subsequently purchased or plagiarised by Dylan before he gained fame was reported in an article in Newsweek magazine in November 1963.
[17][18] In the 1994 film Forrest Gump, Jenny sings this song for a show in a strip club and is introduced as "Bobbi Dylan".
In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI (who had also been in attendance) wrote that he was uncomfortable with music stars such as Dylan performing in a church environment.
Hip hop group Public Enemy reference it in their 2007 Dylan tribute song "Long and Whining Road": "Tears of rage left a friend blowing in the wind / But time is God, been back for ten years, and black again".
The most commercially successful version is by folk music trio Peter, Paul and Mary, who released the song in June 1963, three weeks after The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan was issued.
Albert Grossman, then managing both Dylan and Peter, Paul and Mary, brought the trio the song which they promptly recorded (on a single take) and released.