The first pro singer to pick up this traditional tune from the Library of Congress recordings was Rolf Cahn.

Cahn recorded the song for his 1961 album ‘Rolf Cahn & Eric von Schmidt’, where the song was titled ‘He Was a Friend of Mine’ for the first time.

Dylan clocked the song from the Cahn recording and made some changes to it when he recorded it for his own debut album ‘Bob Dylan’ on November 20, 1961. However, Dylan's recording was not included on the album.

It appeared on various Dylan bootleg albums, which received wide distribution soon thereafter. The ‘61 recording of the song eventually had its official release in 1991 on volume 1 of Columbia Records' Dylan Bootleg Series.

When Dave van Ronk recorded Dylan's version of the song on his 1962 album ‘Dave Van Ronk, Folksinger’, he incorrectly credited Dylan as the song's author.

Chords
G7 (3-2-0-0-0-1)
G7
C (3-3-2-0-1-0)
C

G7
G7
C
C

F
C
E
Am

C
G (3-2-0-0-0-x)
C
C

Verse
Repeat intro
G7
G7
C
C

G7
G7
C
C

F
C
E
Am

C
G
C
C

…and repeat throughout song

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