On November 20, 1961, Bob Dylan entered Columbia Records Studio A in New York City to begin recording his first official album. Studio documentation and music history archives confirm that this was Dylan’s earliest professional session under Columbia producer John Hammond. The session details for November 20 appear in multiple verified histories, including Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Columbia recording logs archived through AllMusic.
Dylan, who was 20 years old at the time, had arrived in New York less than a year earlier. Reports from Britannica confirm that he spent much of 1961 performing in Greenwich Village folk clubs, where he quickly became known for his distinctive voice and interpretation of traditional folk material. His performances attracted the attention of Columbia talent scout and producer John Hammond, who signed him to the label that same year.
The first recording session on November 20 included early takes of “You’re No Good,” “Song to Woody,” “Pretty Peggy-O,” and “Fixing to Die.” Archival notes summarised by AllMusic indicate that Dylan recorded the album entirely live with voice, acoustic guitar and harmonica, without overdubs or multi tracking. Columbia session paperwork lists Studio A at 799 Seventh Avenue, New York, as the recording location, a facility used by artists such as Billie Holiday, Leonard Cohen and Duke Ellington.
Work on the album continued two days later, concluding on November 22. Information from AllMusic notes that the project was completed in just under nine hours of total studio time. Dylan recorded two original compositions for the album, “Song to Woody” and “Talkin New York,” with the remainder being adaptations of traditional folk and blues songs.
The album Bob Dylan was later released on March 19, 1962. Although it did not perform strongly on the charts at the time, historical reviews published by industry archives such as AllMusic and Columbia’s catalogue notes highlight the significance of this November 20 recording session as the beginning of Dylan’s long term association with the label and the start of his career as a recording artist.
Additional references to November 20 music events, including Dylan’s session, appear in verified daily history summaries through This Day In Music and Soundod.
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