Jochen Markhorst

Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Jochen Markhorst

In early summer 1966, long before the American and English editions, the first Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits is compiled in Hamburg: the so-called "stern musik" edition. Since the 1960s, the German magazine stern, in cooperation with the respective record company, has regularly published records it has compiled itself, which the magazine's subscribers can then order at a discount. Mostly middle of the road (James Last, Herb Albert and the like), but occasionally special, attractive rarities - for example The Beatles in Hamburg. And Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits. When the track list is to be selected, presumably somewhere in the spring of '66, Dylan has only had one real hit on the European mainland: "Like A Rolling Stone". Plus the three songs known in the cover versions, but that's it - the record is supposed to have twelve songs, so there are eight vacancies. Blonde On Blonde is not yet out, the debut Bob Dylan album has no nominees. That limits the selection to five LPs (Freewheelin' to Highway 61 Revisited), to 54 album tracks and some non-album singles. Offering a grand choice of classic, indestructible songs. But the final track list is still surprising.