The Byrds 1965 debut, Mr. Tambourine Man, may well be one of pop music's most exhilarating and influential albums, but this – The Byrds Play Dylan – has some of best material from it and from subsequent Bryds recordings. Technically an enhanced reissue of a reissue (the original was a compilation culled from a number of albums and singles), the album is noteworthy beyond the sheer pleasure of hearing it played.

First, despite Dylan's relative notoriety (in a modest, early-'60s fashion) as a so-called protest singer, before the Byrds his music was primarily the stuff of the country's small folk subculture. That changed dramatically in the spring of 1965 when Mr. Tambourine Man was released. Not only did four Dylan compositions anchor the album, but the title cut – previously unreleased by Dylan himself – also went to number one on the pop singles chart and brought the then-underground folk legend into the American mainstream. The Byrds delivered and defined what was called, for the first time, folk rock, characterized by shimmering electric instruments (in particular Jim/Roger McGuinn's 12-string guitar), graceful, rich vocal harmonies, and lyrics that attempted to add more than just simple rhymes and saccharine sentiments to the music. It became one of pop music's enduring sounds, as influential to music since as anything this side of the Beatles.