American folk music revival the UK, protesting the British testing of the H-bomb in 1958, as well as by the ever-proliferating arms race and the increasingly unpopular Vietnam War. Young singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, playing acoustic guitar and harmonica, had been signed and recorded for Columbia by producer John Hammond in 1961. Dylan's record enjoyed some popularity among Greenwich Village folk-music enthusiasts, but he was "discovered" by an immensely larger audience when a pop-folk-music group, Peter, Paul & Mary had a hit with a cover of his song "Blowin' in the Wind". Peter, Paul & Mary also brought Pete Seeger and the Weavers' "If I
The Essential Bob Dylan several more. It has been reissued a couple of times over the years such as in 2009 and again as recently as 2016 with varying track listings . All songs written by Bob Dylan except where noted. The Essential Bob Dylan The Essential Bob Dylan is a compilation by Bob Dylan, released as a double-CD set in 2000, part of Columbia Records' "The Essential" series. "The Essential Bob Dylan" spans from 1963's "Blowin' in the Wind" (taken from "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan") to 1999's "Things Have Changed" (Dylan's Oscar-winning song from the motion picture, "Wonder Boys"). "The Essential Bob Dylan"