Make You Feel My Love (1997) – Bob Dylan

Michael Bolton routinely introduces a number he’s about to sing by first announcing its composer, Bob Dylan. The reaction is usually muted: “Bob Dylan should elicit this enormous response,” he says. “But I don’t get that.” Then the piano-based melody starts up, Bolton works his way into the soothing melody, and the crowd melts. “It makes people feel good and they give it up at the end the song,” Bolton says. “It’s the audience’s response to the song that turns it all around.”

– How Bob Dylan’s ‘Make You Feel My Love’ Became a Modern Standard – Rolling Stone

Make You Feel My Love is a song written by Bob Dylan from his album Time Out of Mind (1997). It was first released commercially by Billy Joel, under the title To Make You Feel My Love, before Dylan’s version appeared later that same year. It has been covered by numerous performers but the most famous cover is by Adele on her debut studio album 19. The popularity of making a hit from a Dylan penned song is more associated with his 60’s output – including Blowing in the Wind, Mr. Tambourine Man and All Along the Watchtower, but Make You Feel My Love was a 90’s track that prominent music artists were falling all over to record. Even Rolling Stone argue that the song has become a modern standard with more than 450 artists having recorded it.

Make You Feel My Love is where Dylan pledges a heartfelt promise of unconditional devotion. It is hardly one of Dylan’s most complex or metaphorical songs. Yet for those very reasons, it’s been elevated to one of the most covered songs in his catalogue. The song has sparked an incredible range of interpretations, spanning mainstream pop, smooth jazz, glee-club harmonies, and even instrumental lullabies for babies. Dylan’s recording features him on piano. “I have a really great spinet piano that is a beautifully restored masterpiece from the Twenties,” producer Daniel Lanois shared with Rolling Stone in 2016.

The following was extracted from the RT article below:
Performing and plugging the song on The Late Show that year, Billy Joel told David Letterman that when he heard it, “my hair stood up on my arms.” To Rolling Stone, he added, “It’s like you struck gold.” Dylan’s less smoothly sung and produced version below arrived a month after Joel’s.
But it would be Adele who made the song the must-croon ballad of the past decade. After she had finished her 2008 debut, 19, manager Jonathan Dickins suggested she cut the song as a last-minute addition to the album. “I heard that song and I read the lyrics and they’re the most beautiful lyrics I’ve ever read or heard or sung,” Adele said at the time. “And they kind of summed up everything I’m trying to write in my songs about how I felt. It’s such a beautiful song.”

[Verse 1]
When the rain is blowing in your face
And the whole world is on your case
I could offer you a warm embrace
To make you feel my love

[Verse 2]
When the evening shatters and the stars appear
And there is no one there to dry your tears
I could hold you for a million years
To make you feel my love

[Bridge]
I know you haven’t made your mind up yet
But I would never do you wrong
I’ve known it from the moment that we met
No doubt in my mind where you belong

[Verse 3]
I’d go hungry, I’d go black and blue
I’d go crawling down the avenue
There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do
To make you feel my love

[Bridge]
The storms are raging on the rolling sea
And on the highway of regret
The winds of change are blowing wild and free
You ain’t seen nothing like me yet

[Verse 4]
I could make you happy, make your dreams come true
Nothing that I wouldn’t do
Go to the ends of the earth for you
To make you feel my love

The following was extracted from the Wikipedia article below:
Spectrum Culture included the song on a list of “Bob Dylan’s 20 Best Songs of the 90s“. In an article accompanying the list, critic John Paul described it thus:

“Accompanied by a lone piano, ghostlike bass line and slightly woozy sounding organ playing sustained notes throughout, the arrangement of the song isn’t terribly remarkable, the meat of the song itself relying on Dylan’s surprisingly emotional read and jazz-like chord progression”.

Ultimate Classic Rock critic Matthew Wilkening rated “Make You Feel My Love” as the 7th best song Dylan recorded between 1992 and 2011, praising it as a “weary, textured masterpiece“.

A 2021 Guardian article included it on a list of “80 Bob Dylan songs everyone should know“.

According to his official website, Dylan performed the song live over 300 times in concert between 1997 and 2019 on the Never Ending Tour.

References:
1. How Bob Dylan’s ‘Make You Feel My Love’ Became a Modern Standard – Rolling Stone
2. Make You Feel My Love – Wikipedia