May 16, 1966 is commonly noted as the album's official release date. Michael Gray, author of "The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia", contended that the release date was actually around late June or early July. This coincides with the album's promotion in "Billboard", which carried a full-page Columbia advertisement on June 25, selected the album as a "New Action LP" on July 9, and ran a review and article on July 16. In 2017, after viewing a Sony database of album releases, Heylin found that the release date was in fact June 20, 1966. This is supported by the fact that an overdub on "Fourth Time Around" was recorded in June.