The Bob Dylan Cover He Called the ‘Highlight of My Career’

Many famous musicians want to get the attention of Bob Dylan by performing a cover of one of his songs. Sometimes, Dylan feels honored by these covers as they are performed by someone he deeply admires. One Bob Dylan cover by a rock icon is what Dylan considers the “highlight of [his] career.”

Bob Dylan considered Elvis Presley one of his heroes

Many would consider Bob Dylan to be a musical hero of theirs, but the same could also be said about Elvis Presley. Dylan listened to Elvis at a young age, and the king of rock is what inspired him to pursue a career in music. According to Goldmine, Dylan once said hearing Elvis for the first time was like “busting out of jail.”

“When I first heard Elvis’ voice, I just knew that I wasn’t going to work for anybody and nobody was going to be my boss,” Dylan explained. “Hearing him for the first time was like busting out of jail.”

Bob Dylan said Elvis’ cover of ‘Tomorrow Is a Long Time’ is a career highlight

Bob Dylan must have been shell-shocked when he first heard Elvis singing one of his songs. Presley covered a few of the folk singer’s songs like “Tomorrow Is a Long Time”, “Blowin’ in the Wind”, and “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”. Dylan said Elvis covering one of his songs was “the highlight of my career.” In a different interview with Rolling Stone, Dylan said Elvis’ version of “Tomorrow Is a Long Time” is the record he “treasure[s] the most.”

“Elvis Presley recorded a song of mine. That’s the one recording I treasure the most,” Dylan said. “It was called ‘Tomorrow Is A Long Time.’ I wrote it but never recorded it.”

Dylan passed on the chance to meet his childhood hero

While Bob Dylan idolized Elvis, he never met the Memphis singer and intentionally decided not to. In a 2009 interview with Rolling Stone, he explained why he didn’t want to meet him. 

“I never met Elvis,” he said. “I never met Elvis, because I didn’t want to meet Elvis. Elvis was in his Sixties movie period, and he was just crankin’ ’em out and knockin’ ’em off, one after another. And Elvis had kind of fallen out of favor in the Sixties. He didn’t really come back until, whatever was it, ’68?”

He and George Harrison had the chance to record with Elvis, but bailed on him. Harrison had already met the king with The Beatles, but Dylan didn’t want to meet the version of Elvis that he later became. 

“I don’t know if I would have wanted to see Elvis like that,” Dylan stated. “I wanted to see the powerful, mystical Elvis that had crash-landed from a burning star onto American soil. The Elvis that was bursting with life. That’s the Elvis that inspired us to all the possibilities of life. And that Elvis was gone, had left the building.”

Most people would jump at the chance to meet their childhood heroes, but Dylan was content with keeping Elvis as the image he had in his head.