Bob Dylan Albums Timeline

On this day, 56 years ago, Bob Dylan’s very first studio album was released by Columbia Records. Featuring 11 folk standards and 2 original compositions, the self-titled album did not receive critical acclaim until years later. However, this didn’t stop the newly discovered talent in his tracks from becoming one of the most influential figures in the popular music and culture of the last five decades. On the contrary, once he made his debut, Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman) embarked on a journey that was to unfold into an extremely prolific musical career which has yielded 68 albums, including studio and compilation ones.

To celebrate the artist’s breakthrough and inspirational work, we have put together the Bob Dylan Albums Timeline, which provides a chronological overview of his major album releases.

Recorded in three short afternoon sessions on the 20th and 22nd of November 1961, the debut album Bob Dylan is rumored to have cost only $402 to be produced. Despite the low cost and short amount of time involved, its recording nevertheless posed some difficulties to the producer, John H. Hammond, who later stated that he had never worked with anyone so undisciplined as Bob Dylan before. During the sessions, the young artist, whose early songs became anthems for the Civil Rights Movement, refused to do second takes – “I can’t see myself singing the same song twice in a row. That’s terrible.”

The Bob Dylan Albums chronology was designed with Office Timeline, a user-friendly PowerPoint plugin that allows you to generate smart timelines, Gantt charts, and other types of visuals almost instantly. The slide can be copied and shared for free and is easily editable using the Plus version of the tool.

Download the Bob Dylan Albums Timeline for PowerPoint here.