Considering she’s known as the Queen of Pop, Madonna‘s fans might be surprised to learn of her affinity for Bob Dylan‘s music — but as it turns out, the Material Girl spent a good portion of her teenage years listening to one of his classic tunes on repeat (and sobbing).
During a 1994 with Paul Du Noyer that was posted to his website, Madonna admitted that “Lay Lady Lay” (from Dylan’s 1969 album Nashville Skyline) “makes her cry every time.”
“I used to listen to ‘Lay Lady Lay’ in my brother’s bedroom in the basement of our house,” Madonna recalled. “I’d lie on the bed and play that song and cry all the time. I was going through adolescence, I had hormones raging through my body. Don’t ask me why I was crying, it’s not a sad song. But that’s the only record of [Dylan’s] that I really listened to.”
As it turns out, Dylan is something of a Madonna fan, as well. In a 1991 interview with American Songwriter, Dylan explained that while “pop entertainment means nothing” to him, “Madonna’s good.”
“Madonna’s good, she’s talented, she puts all kind of stuff together, she’s learned her thing…but it’s the kind of thing which takes years and years out of your life to be able to do,” he said. “You’ve got to sacrifice a whole lot to do that. Sacrifice. If you want to make it big, you’ve got to sacrifice a whole lot. It’s all the same, it’s all the same.”
Bob Dylan wrote ‘Lay Lady Lay’ for Barbra Streisand
Now considered to be one of the most popular love songs of the ’60s, “Lay Lady Lay” was widely believed to have been written for the film Midnight Cowboy. But in transcripts from a 1971 conversation with friend Tony Glover that went up for auction years later, Dylan revealed the song was penned with an iconic singer in mind.
“Actually it was written for Barbra Streisand,” Dylan said, per celebrity.land.
While Streisand apparently didn’t know the song was written for her, she responded to the revelation in a statement to NBC News.
“I’m very flattered to find out that Bob Dylan wrote ‘Lay Lady Lay’ for me,” she said. “What I remember is getting flowers from him with a handwritten note asking me to sing a duet with him, but I just couldn’t imagine it then. Guess what, Bob, I can imagine doing it now!”
Related: Bob Dylan Wrote the Lyrics to This Classic Song on a Napkin and Didn’t Want Any Credit
This story was originally reported by Parade on Oct 1, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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