Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings will release Dylan, a definitive career-spanning retrospective of many of the most powerful, influential and unforgettable recordings of Bob Dylan, on Tuesday, October 2.

Chronicling four decades of Dylan's groundbreaking studio recordings, as well as his enduring influence on popular music and culture, Dylan provides an expansive overview of the artist's musical evolution for long-time devotees while offering an ideal introduction to Dylan's music for new fans.

The Dylan retrospective is available in a three-disc collection covering three distinct periods of Dylan's ongoing musical evolution (disc 1: 1962-1967 - Bob Dylan through John Wesley Harding; disc 2: 1967-1985 - The Basement Tapes through Empire Burlesque; disc 3: 1986-2006 - Knocked Out Loaded through Modern Times). The 51 track collection comes packaged in an 8-panel digipak with a 24 page full color booklet and liner notes by noted music journalist Bill Flanagan.

The three-disc version of Dylan will also be available in a monumental deluxe collector's box set, housed in a keepsake cloth-covered box with each of the three discs presented in classic LP-styled sleeves featuring iconic Dylan and Columbia Records imagery. The Dylan box set comes with a 40 page book with extended liner notes and rare photos as well as 10 limited edition postcard lithograph prints highlighting pivotal moments from Dylan's career.

In addition, Dylan will be available in a special single disc edition, packaged in a standard jewel case with a full color 20 page booklet, featuring 18 select songs from the retrospective. The single disc edition includes special introductory liner notes and song-by-song annotations by Bill Flanagan.

Song selection for the comprehensive Dylan collection set was greatly influenced by impassioned fan lobbying on the dylan07.com website. The site went live in February for fans to share thoughts on Bob Dylan's music, swap stories about first hearing the artist's songs and seeing him in concert, and more.

Bob Dylan is one of the world's most popular and acclaimed songwriters, musicians and performers, having sold more than 100 million albums and performed literally thousands of shows around the world in a career spanning five decades. His most recent album, Modern Times -- lauded by critics around the world and selling more than 2.5 million copies to date -- entered the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart at #1, as well as debuting within the Top Five in 21 other countries. His previous studio albums, Time Out Of Mind and Love & Theft, have been among his most commercially successful and critically lauded, each having sold more than a million copies and earning Grammy nominations for Album Of The Year (Time Out Of Mind won that award in 1998).

In 2001, he received a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for best song from a motion picture for "Things Have Changed" from the movie Wonder Boys. Dylan's Chronicles Volume I, his recent memoirs released in October, 2004, was a world-wide best seller, spending 19 weeks on The New York Times Bestseller List. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Songwriters Hall Of Fame in 1982.

Bob Dylan remains one of the world's top touring artists, performing more than 100 concerts yearly around the globe.

Dylan - tracklisting

Disc One
1. Song to Woody
2. Blowin' in the Wind
3. Masters of War
4. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
5. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
6. The Times They Are A-Changin'
7. All I Really Want to Do
8. My Back Pages
9. It Ain't Me, Babe
10. Subterranean Homesick Blues
11. Mr. Tambourine Man
12. Maggie's Farm
13. Like a Rolling Stone
14. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
15. Positively 4th Street
16. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
17. Just Like a Woman
18. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)
19. All Along the Watchtower

Disc Two
1. You Ain't Goin' Nowhere
2. Lay Lady Lay
3. If Not for You
4. I Shall Be Released
5. Knockin' on Heaven's Door
6. On a Night Like This
7. Forever Young
8. Tangled Up in Blue
9. Simple Twist of Fate
10. Hurricane
11. Changing of the Guards
12. Gotta Serve Somebody
13. Precious Angel
14. The Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar
15. Jokerman
16. Dark Eyes

Disc Three
1. Blind Willie McTell
2. Brownsville Girl
3. Silvio
4. Ring Them Bells
5. Dignity
6. Everything Is Broken
7. Under the Red Sky
8. You're Gonna Quit Me
9. Blood in My Eyes
10. Not Dark Yet
11. Things Have Changed
12. Make You Feel My Love
13. High Water (For Charley Patton)
14. Po' Boy
15. Someday Baby
16. When the Deal Goes Down

Dylan - single disc edition - tracklisting
1. Blowin' in the Wind
2. The Times They Are A-Changin'
3. Subterranean Homesick Blues
4. Mr. Tambourine Man
5. Like a Rolling Stone
6. Maggie's Farm
7. Positively 4th Street
8. Just Like a Woman
9. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
10. All Along the Watchtower
11. Lay Lady Lay
12. Knockin' on Heaven's Door
13. Tangled Up in Blue
14. Hurricane
15. Make You Feel My Love
16. Things Have Changed
17. Someday Baby
18. Forever Young