The Mighty Quinn (Quinn, the Eskimo)

Manfred Mann’s “Mighty Quinn” was released in 1968, while Dylan’s own version was released as a live track two years later on his album Self Portrait. Dylan first recorded a version of the song with The Band during a then-secret recording session that would later produce Dylan’s album The Basement Tapes. However, that album was not released until 1975 and left out tons of songs recorded during those sessions. Interestingly, “Quinn the Eskimo” (Dylan’s original title) was inspired by a film—The Savage Innocents, in which Anthony Quinn played an Eskimo—and eventually inspired a film itself—The Mighty Quinn.

When Manfred Mann first heard the song (Dylan was giving demo tapes to other artists), they didn’t think the song would become a hit. After all, the song is about an Eskimo named Mighty Quinn who will come to town and apparently bring joy (and sleep). Mike D’Abo of Manfred Mann said, “I have never had the first idea what the song is about except that it seems to be 'Hey, gang, gather round, something exciting is going to happen 'cause the big man's coming.' As to who the big man is and why he is an Eskimo, I don't know.”

D’Abo’s record player played the song too fast which sped up the tempo. That was not the only issue they had while trying to record the song. Dylan’s demo was so intelligible at some points that the group had to guess the lyrics (“guarding fumes” turned into “jumping queues”), and at the beginning of the third verse, they had to completely make up their own lyrics. D’Abo claimed it was like “learning a song phonetically in a foreign language.”

But this sped-up tempo actually helped make their version a hit. Manfred Mann’s “Mighty Quinn,” complete with a Beatle-esque pop sound and flute solos (making it one of the few Top 10 songs to include the flute), spent two weeks at the number one spot in the U.K.. While it didn’t reach the number one spot in America, it was in the Top 10 and remained very popular for a while.