Happy 74th Birthday, Bob Dylan! (Plus 20 Facts About the Folk Singer)

Image Source: telegraph.co.uk

To celebrate the legendary folk singer who turned 74 today, here are 20 facts about Bob Dylan:

1. Birth name is Robert Allen Zimmerman

2. Born on May 24, 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota

3. He took on the name "Bob Dylan" after the late Welsh poet Dylan Thomas

4. Attended University of Minneapolis in Minnesota, but dropped out in 1960

5. Has won 10 Grammy awards, one Golden Globe, and one Academy Award

6. His first album, "Bob Dylan," was released in 1962.

Image Source: keepingthebluesalive.org. Bob Dylan performing at Newport Folk Festival in 1965.

7. He was booed at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 when he performed with an electric guitar.

8. His book, "Tarantula," was published in 1971 and contained a collection of experimental prose poetry

Image Source: pixdaus.com. Joan Baez and Bob Dylan

9. He was romantically involved with folk singer, Joan Baez

10. Dylan was only 20 years-old when he signed with Columbia Records in 1961

11. None of Dylan's hit singles have ever charted at number one on Billboard. The closest that have charted were "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35," both which came in at number two

12. He performed for Pope John Paul II in 1997

13. He was raised Jewish and became a Born-Again Christian during the 1970s

14. Dylan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 by Bruce Springsteen

15. He appeared in a Victoria's Secret commercial in 2004 where his song "Love Sick" from the 1997 album Time Out of Mind plays in the background



Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone (Live... by toma-uno

16. He was the first rock musician to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for "his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power."

17. Dylan has nine grandchildren and sports a bumper sticker on his car that reads “World’s Greatest Grandpa.”

18. He has appeared (credited) in 5 movies: Masked and Anonymous, Paradise Cove, Hearts of Fire, Renaldo and Clara, and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid

19. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2008

20. Shadows in the Night, which was released on February 3, 2015, is Bob Dylan's 36th studio album