1965 Top 10 Pop Song Was Originally a Bob Dylan Deep Cut

The Turtles carved their place in the rock and roll history book with "Happy Together." The psychedelic love song, featuring Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman's dreamy harmonies, went to No. 1 in March of 1967, surpassing The Beatles' "Penny Lane" for the top spot, where it stayed for three weeks. Afterwards, "Happy Together" became one of the biggest songs of the decade and beyond, appearing in movies and commercials to this very day.

And none of that would have been possible had Howard Kalyan not found a copy of Another Side of Bob Dylan in his record collection a few years earlier. Because the Turtles' first hit came when they decided to coverBob Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe."

Kaylan, Volman and Al Nichol first got their start in music shortly after high school with a surf rock group called The Crossfires. As folk rock and Beatlemania took over, the band shifted its sound, recruited Jim Tucker, Don Murray, and Chuck Portz, and rebranded as The Turtles.

"I was trying to figure out what songs to go into the studio with," remarked Kaylan in Mark Volman's 2023 memoir and oral history, Happy Together. Kaylan perused "all of the Bob Dylan and Kingston Trio records I had" in search of a song to cover, one that would "distinguish us as far as putting out a Byrds-sounding record that would be recognizable as a new band."

"The only songs I'd written up to that point had been folk rock songs," he adds, "but I was searching for something else, and I couldn't put my finger on it until I listened to Dylan's ‘It Ain't Me Babe.' And then, I knew exactly what it was that the band ought to do."

Dylan didn't release "It Ain't Me Babe" as a single; Another Side of Bob Dylan was a divisive record of the day. For Dlyan, he heard pop gold in the deep cut. He rearranged the track so that it went from "very quiet minor verses to crashing 4/4 choruses," which transformed the meaning of Dylan's song from "a plaintive one to an angry one, by saying, ‘No! No! No! It ain't me, babe!' and singing it with that sort of venom."

The Turtles released their version of "It Ain't Me Babe" in the summer of 1965. It peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September. Having a Top 10 hit launched the band's career, which they followed with "You Baby" and eventually, "Happy Together."

Before the band broke up in 1970, The Turtles scored two more hits with "Elenore" and "You Showed Me."

What did Dylan think of The Turtles turning his folk song into a Top 10 pop hit? Dylan referenced the group when accepting the MusiCares Person of the Year award in 2015.

"The Byrds, the Turtles, Sonny & Cher, they made some of my songs Top 10 hits, but I wasn't a pop songwriter, and I really didn't want to be that," he said in his acceptance speech, "but it was good that it happened. Their versions of songs were like commercials, but I didn't really mind that because 50 years later, my songs were being used in the commercials. So that was good too. I was glad it happened, and I was glad they'd done it."

In his 2013 memoir, Shell Shocked, Howard Kaylan shed some more light on the inscrutable Dylan's thoughts on the matter. He recalls performing "a particularly energetic show" at New York City's Phone Booth in 1965, which climaxed with "It Ain't Me Babe." Dylan happened to be in the audience for that night's show, and the group was "led past him in processional fashion," according to Howard.

"When I got my chance to shake his hand," wrote Kaylan, "Dylan said, ‘Hey, that was a great song you just played. That should be your single.' Then he passed out in his food."

Later on in the memoir, Kaylan recounts running into Dylan backstage at the L.A. Sports Arena sometime in 1981. Kaylan approached Dylan and thanked him for "writing our first hit."

"Was it any good?" asked Dylan, to which Kaylan said it was. "So, we both made money, then?" asked Bob. "Yessir," said Howard, who said Dylan shook his hand and said, "Well, then, I thank you. Let's do her again sometime."

Related: ‘60s Rockers Once Admitted Top 10 Song Was a Parody of Their Big Hit but No One Noticed

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This story was originally published April 28, 2026 at 1:30 AM.