I’ll Be Your Baby

“I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” is a 1967 song by Bob Dylan first released on John Wesley Harding. It features Pete Drake on pedal steel guitar, and two other Nashville musicians, Charlie McCoy on bass guitar and Kenneth Buttrey on drums, both of whom had appeared on Dylan’s previous album, Blonde on Blonde.

Dylan first performed the song in concert at the Isle of Wight Festival with the Band on August 31, 1969. Since then, he has included it in more than 650 live performances. “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” has been covered by many artists, including Robert Palmer with UB40 in 1990.

Dylan’s I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight was the first track on the 1968 CBS budget sampler album The Rock Machine Turns You On which, in the aftermath of the 1960s British dominance of pop music, was a successful marketing exercise in introducing the UK audience to contemporary USA pop output.

“Charlie Christian showed me a lot and was a great help, but even then, I realized that if I was going to make it, it was no use copying Charlie.” – Barney Kessel