BeforeBob Dylan became a music legend, he was a smitten teenager with a crush — and her name wasBrigitte Bardot.
Long before his name was synonymous with folk rock, a young Dylan found inspiration in one of the most iconic women of the era. Captivated by her beauty, Dylan reportedly wrote his very first song titled “Song For Brigitte.”
Though the track was never released, it resurfaced during a 1966 interview with Playboymagazine, where Dylan was asked about the first track he ever wrote.
“I don’t recall too much of it,” he replied. “It had only one chord. Well, it is all in the heart.” While no recordings or lyrics of the song have surfaced, Dylan’s own words and the context suggest it was a heartfelt tribute, or teenage love letter, to the French bombshell.
In that same interview, Dylan also shared how his musical journey began. “I saved the money I had made working on my daddy’s truck and bought a Silvertone guitar from Sears Roebuck. I was 12. I just bought a book of chords and began to play.”
However, a lesser-known pamphlet from Dylan’s first Carnegie Hall performance in 1961 offers an alternate detail. In it, Dylan reportedly wrote, “I started writing my own songs about four or five years ago. First song was to Brigitte Bardot, for piano. Thought if I wrote the song I’d sing it to her one day. Never met her.”
The Bardot references didn’t end with his teenage years. Dylan went on to mention her again in his 1963 track “I Shall Be Free,” from his album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. The lyrics read:
“Well, my telephone rang it would not stop / It’s President Kennedy callin’ me up / He said, ‘My friend, Bob, what do we need to make the / country grow?’/ I said, ‘My friend, John, Brigitte Bardot.”
Though Bardot and Dylan never met, he did find his own muse closer to home. His first girlfriend, Echo Helstrom Casey, is often speculated as the inspiration behind his beloved 1963 ballad “Girl From the North Country.” The two attended Hibbing High School in Minnesota, where they went to junior prom together in 1957.
In her yearbook, Dylan left a reported note, “Let me tell you that your beauty is second to none. Love to the most beautiful girl in school.” Years later, in his 2004 memoir Chronicles: Volume One, Dylan fondly recalled Echo as “his Becky Thatcher,” a reference to Tom Sawyer’s hometown love, and noted, “Everybody said she looked like Brigitte Bardot, and she did.”
This story was originally reported by Parade on Sep 28, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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