The Hit We Almost Missed. -- The year was 1965; the artist was Bob Dylan; and the song was "Like a Rolling Stone."

Did someone once say politics aren't everything, just the most important thing? It sure wasn't me.

Thus in my 08-16-04 post titled "On this day," we reminded our readers of one of the truly sad days in recent American history, noting in what must be my shortest post to date:

"On Aug. 16, 1977, The King died at Graceland Mansion at age 42."

In 1977 I had been out of law school for four years. In 1965 I was a sophomore in high school.

In a 12-03-04 op-ed The New York Times recounts a fascinating play-by-play on how "Like a Rolling Stone" almost never made it out of the recording studio. Excerpts:

It's official, I guess. Forty years after he recorded it, Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" was just named the greatest rock 'n' roll song of all time by Rolling Stone magazine, a tribute it had previously been given by New Musical Express, Britain's leading pop-music weekly. Quite an honor, considering that the single was almost never released.

"Like a Rolling Stone" was recorded on June 15, 1965 . . . . When the edited tape was played a few days later for Mr. Dylan and his manager, the reaction was unanimous: it would be a hit and should be released immediately.

But before that could happen, the song had to be presented at Columbia's weekly singles meeting, and that's where the trouble began. Though just about everyone from the A & R (artists and repertoire) and promotion departments loved it, the sales and marketing people had a different opinion. And their opinion mattered, for sales and marketing was the engine behind the label's success.

Their objection to the song came on two levels. The unstated reason was that they just didn't like raucous rock 'n' roll. The sales and marketing people had made Columbia a winner by selling mainstream American music - pop, jazz, country, gospel, the best of Broadway and Hollywood. But rock? No way. It was this thinking that had led the label to turn down Elvis Presley in 1955 and the first American album by the Beatles in 1963.

Of course, none of this was raised at the meeting about "Like a Rolling Stone." What did come up was the length of the song. In 1965, three minutes was the average time for singles played on national radio. "Like a Rolling Stone" clocked in at one second under six minutes. The solution? Cut the baby in half, the wise Solomon of Sales decreed.

When presented with this edict, Bob Dylan refused . . . .

A memo was sent out saying that the single was to be moved from an "immediate special" to an "unassigned release." Translated, it was in limbo, soon to be dropped, no doubt, into the dark graveyard of canceled releases.

(End of excerpts.)

But the author of the co-op took the rejected record to the hottest new disco in Manhattan, a place called Arthur, and there it was played, etc., and as they say, the rest is history.