Bob Dylan Scores First-Ever No. 1 Hit

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan’s latest single “Murder Most Foul,” his first original song in eight years, is also now the folk-rock icon’s first No. 1 hit on a Billboard chart. according to The Wrap.

“Murder Most Foul” is a sweeping 17-minute ballad about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, and according to Billboard, the song debuted at No. 1 on the Rock Digital Song Sales survey.

Billboard reports that the song hit 10,000 downloads in its first week and was streamed 1.8 million times in the U.S., which landed it at #5 on Billboard’s Hot Rock Songs chart. The track also has 2.7 million views on YouTube since debuting on March 26.

Dylan has placed on a Billboard chart before. His iconic “Like a Rolling Stone” hit No. 2 on the genre-encompassing Billboard Hot 100 back in September 1965, as did “Rainy Day Women #12 and 35” in May 1966. But he’s never reached No. 1 on any individual genre chart until now.

Billboard also noted that Dylan flirted with some chart-topping success when three of his songs with The Traveling Wilburys (“Handle With Care,” “End of the Line” and “She’s My Baby), all reached No. 2 on the Mainstream Rock Songs charts back in the 1980s and ’90s. His songs also reached No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart with Peter Paul & Mary’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” cover and The Byrds’ version of “Mr. Tambourine Man” topping the Hot 100 back in June 1965.

In a surprise on his Instagram page, Dylan released the track late last month and said that “Murder Most Foul” was a previously unreleased track he recorded some time ago.



Dylan’s last album of original music was 2012’s “Tempest.” Since then, the folk-rock icon and Nobel Prize winner has released several albums of American standards, including most recently “Triplicate” in 2017.