"Make You Feel My Love", also known as "To Make You Feel My Love", is a song written by Bob Dylan for his album Time Out of Mind, released in September 1997. It was first released commercially in August 1997 by Billy Joel for his compilation album Greatest Hits Volume III.
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:[5]
"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".[6]
A 2021 Guardian article included it on a list of "80 Bob Dylan songs everyone should know".[7]
Billy Joel released his original version of the song, titled "To Make You Feel My Love", for his compilation album Greatest Hits Volume III (1997). It was released as the album's lead single and reached number 50 on the US BillboardHot 100.[12] Joel's single pre-dated Dylan's release of the song by one month.
Garth Brooks covered the song as "To Make You Feel My Love" in 1998. It appeared on the soundtrack of the 1998 film Hope Floats, along with a cover version by Trisha Yearwood (whom Brooks would marry in 2005) as the first and last tracks. Yearwood's version would be the only version of the song on the soundtrack's 2007 reissue. It was included first as the bonus track on Fresh Horses for Brooks' first Limited Series box set and then included on all later pressings of that album. Brooks' version resulted in a nomination at the 41st Grammy Awards for Best Male Country Vocal Performance and a nomination for Bob Dylan for Best Country Song.
In 2007, English singer-songwriter Adele recorded "Make You Feel My Love" for her debut studio album 19 (2008). It was released as the album's fourth and final single on October 27, 2008, both on CD and vinyl, originally peaking at number 26.[25]
Background
"Make You Feel My Love" is the only cover version on 19; Adele either wrote or co-wrote all the other tracks.[26]
Although she did not want a cover version on her album, as she was worried it would imply she was incapable of writing enough of her own songs, she listened to the song under pressure from her manager, Jonathan Dickins and loved it.[26] She told the Huddersfield Daily Examiner:
I wrote nine songs in a short space of time, all about this awful relationship I was in. I never quite got down what I was really feeling in those songs, though. It wasn't that I was holding back or anything, but I just couldn't get it down. I was bitterly upset and then [Dickins] played me this Bob Dylan song 'Make You Feel My Love'. The lyrics are just amazing and summed up exactly what I'd been trying to say in my songs. It's about regretting not being with someone and it's beautiful. It's weird that my favourite song on my album is a cover, but I couldn't not put it on there. I'm not normally a Dylan fan either.[27]
Piano is played by Neil Cowley and Adele is credited with bass.[28]
Critical reception
Adele's version received critical acclaim. According to Alex Fletcher of Digital Spy, the version expresses Adele's affection for the song, "with just piano as backing, her dreamy, passionate vocals are allowed to shine".[29]
According to Dave Simpson of The Guardian, with her "hushed delivery", Adele makes the song "her own".[30]
In January 2013, Heart Radio listed Adele's recording as the UK's number one song of all time in its Hall of Fame Top 500.[31]
Chart performance
Initially, the song only reached a peak of number 26, but found a new lease of life in 2010, two years after its release, following performances by several contestants on the seventh series of The X Factor. In September 2010, after it was performed by Annastasia Baker,[32] it re-entered the UK Singles Chart at number 24. The song then surged to number 4 the following month after a second performance by Gamu Nhengu.[33][34] Following a third X Factor performance and heavy use in the Comic Relief 2010 television, it spent three more non-consecutive weeks in the top 10. Thanks to this newfound attention, "Make You Feel My Love" was the 48th biggest-selling song of 2010. In early 2011 the song returned to the top 40 again, at number 34, after it was used on the fifth series of Britain's Got Talent.
After years of trickle selling, "Make You Feel My Love" passed the million sales mark in the UK in 2017.[35]
On Friday, November 20, 2015, Adele sang the song during a BBC special, Adele at the BBC, hosted by talk show host Graham Norton. One segment of the show, which went viral,[38] featured a prank in which eight Adele impersonators were invited to audition at the Wimbledon Theatre for a nonexistent show.[39] Adele herself, disguised as a nanny named "Jenny", pretended to also be an Adele impersonator, and was the last one to sing. When she started singing "Make You Feel My Love", the other performers finally recognized her and realized they had been pranked.[40][41]
During a concert at London's O2 Arena on March 22, 2016, the day of the Brussels bombings, Adele dedicated a performance of the song to the victims of the attacks.[43]
In addition, Adele's video of the song, directed by Mat Kirby, was released on music channels in late September 2008 and continues to be featured on her website.[44]
