The Wallflowers' debut, self-titled album arrived to little fanfare in August of 1992. It did little to deter frontman Jakob Dylan, who presented the world with Bringing Down the Horse four years later.

This time it was different. Three songs from the album were nominated for Grammy Awards and the album itself went to No. 4 in the U.S. Its leading track, "One Headlight," was the first single to ever reach No. 1 on all three of Billboard's rock airplay charts: Modern Rock Tracks, Mainstream Rock Songs and the Triple-A chart.

Who was this Dylan guy and where did he come from? If it wasn't clear already: Jakob Dylan is the second oldest son of Bob Dylan, born in 1969. Like most spawn of rock stars, he didn't exactly have a normal childhood — unless you also spent a portion of your teenage years on the road with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in the '80s or hung out with George Harrison's son while your dads made Traveling Wilburys music — but it appeared the younger Dylan had a gift for songwriting, famous father or not. (In 1998, Jakob won a Grammy for Best Rock Song. Among those also nominated for the same award? His dad.)

Two things are true at once: Jakob and his Wallflowers are a singular talent, recognized for their own accomplishments, but he and they also stand on the shoulders of those who came before them. Jakob's list of influences is long, and naturally, many of them are or were his dad's peers: Petty, Bruce Springsteen, Joe Strummer, Leon Russell, etc.

It stands to reason then that the Wallflowers have covered songs by a number of rock 'n' roll greats over the years, both live and in studio. Below, we've collected 10 of the best, though it's just the tip of the iceberg.

1. "I Started a Joke"
Artist: The Bee Gees

Dylan does not have the same singing voice as Robin Gibb — that's a real apples to oranges comparison. Still, the Wallflowers' version of "I Started a Joke" is both an honest nod to the original and one that sounds entirely like themselves. It appeared on what was billed as a "children's album" called 2000s Alternative Rock For Kids. Whether or not a song about feeling deeply alienated is the best choice for a kids album is another matter.

 

2. "I'm Looking Through You"
Artist: The Beatles

"Nobody was ever going to be as good as the Beatles," Dylan said to The Big Issue in 2020, "nobody will ever be as good as the Beatles." That should not stop bands from covering their music though, as the Wallflowers did for the soundtrack to the 2001 film, I Am Sam, which was made up entirely of Beatles covers.

 

3. "The Waiting"
Artist: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Dylan is no stranger to covering Petty songs. In fact, in October of 2024, he put on a show in Los Angeles in which he played the entirety of the Wallflowers' own Bringing Down the Horse, plus Petty and the Heartbreakers' 1982 album Long After Dark. In the last several years, Dylan has taken a particular shining to "The Waiting," which he'll play often in encores. "[Petty] lacked arrogance," Dylan said to The Sun in 2021. "I'm sorry to say it but some people from that generation are assholes. They’re competitive, they're not comfortable and there's bitter-ness, but not Tom."

 

4. "Into the Mystic"
Artist: Van Morrison

In June of 2023, Bob Dylan broke out an unexpected cover of Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic" at one of his concerts, but his son Jakob has been doing it for well over two decades. Below is the studio version the Wallflowers recorded for the soundtrack to the 2003 film American Wedding, the same year they started including it in live set lists.

 

5. "Heroes"
Artist: David Bowie

For whatever reason, a bunch of Wallflowers classic rock covers have ended up on movie soundtracks. Here's another one in the form of David Bowie's "Heroes," which the Wallflowers recorded for the 1998 film Godzilla, and continued to perform live. An especially memorable cover of it happened in November 2024 when Dylan performed it with Duff McKagan of Guns N' Roses.

 

7. "Lawyers, Guns and Money"
Artist: Warren Zevon

Warren Zevon is actually the person responsible for connecting Dylan with record producer Andrew Slater. In 1987, Slater was working on Zevon's Sentimental Hygiene album, on which Dylan's dad played harmonica on the song "The Factory." "He brought this kid," Slater recalled to Rolling Stone in 2002. "I said, 'Hi, I'm Andy,' and he said, 'Hi, I'm Jakob. I'm in a band.'" The younger Dylan was just 17 years old at the time, but Slater would wind up co-producing two of the Wallflowers' albums, their 1992 debut and 2000's (Breach), and the Wallflowers would record one of Zevon's songs, "Lawyers, Guns and Money" for the 2004 tribute album Enjoy Every Sandwich: The Songs of Warren Zevon. The Wallflowers also performed the song with Zevon's son, Jordan, on Late Show With David Letterman that same year.

 

8. "Eight Miles High"
Artist: The Byrds

Back in 2018, Dylan served as the host of a film called Echo in the Canyon, which explored the rise of Los Angeles' Laurel Canyon neighborhood as a mecca for music and art of all kinds in the '60s, where the likes of Joni Mitchell, the Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield, the Byrds and many more found space to create. Speaking of the Byrds, here's a live cover of their song "Eight Miles High" the Wallflowers did with Roger McGuinn and Eric Clapton in 2023. (If you'd like to hear more Laurel Canyon covers, the film's soundtrack includes contributions by Neil Young, Beck, Regina Spektor, Fiona Apple, Josh Homme and more.)

 

9. "I Fought the Law"
Artists: The Crickets (in the style of the Clash)

One of the perks of Bob Dylan being your dad is that the chances of meeting your heroes as a kid are much greater, which is how he got to meet Joe Strummer and the Clash. "I haven't bumped into anyone my age, either playing music or just a fan of music, who won't undeniably say the Clash wasn't one of the most impactful and powerful groups, in whichever version of them you like or whichever record you like," Dylan said to Exclaim! in 2012. "There was just nobody any better. I've never been caught up in the whole punk rock tag — I didn't care about that — they were just a terrific rock 'n' roll band who moved me then and still do." "I Fought the Law" in the style of the Clash is a regular of Wallflowers set lists.

 

10. "The Letter"
Artist: The Boxtops

Dylan's voice really suits the Boxtops' 1967 hit "The Letter" — both he and singer Alex Chilton have a gruff edge to them. The Wallflowers' version though gives it a little more weight on the bottom, not to mention space for some great piano work.

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