Original 1968 single '' advertisement, February 24, 1968 Dylan first recorded the song in 1967 during the
Basement Tapes sessions, but did not release a version for another three years. Meanwhile, the song was picked up and recorded in December 1967 by the British band
Manfred Mann, who released it as a single in the US on 8 January 1968 under the title "Mighty Quinn". A UK single followed within a week. It also charted on the American
Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at No. 10, and reached No. 4 in
Cash Box.
Cash Box called it a "funky-rock track" with "a trace of
calypso [to] add zest to a tremendous effort."
Earth Band versions and 1978 single Later groups to feature
the eponymous keyboardist,
Manfred Mann Chapter Three and
Manfred Mann's Earth Band, played a dramatically different version of the song live. A live recording of part of the instrumental midsection was released on the 1975 Earth Band album
Nightingales & Bombers under the title "As Above So Below". The band finally released a live version of the entire song on their 1978 album
Watch. The
single edit, released to commemorate ten years since the release of the 1968 Manfred Mann hit version, omitted the
prog middle part and included a few new guitar solos. Since that time, the song has appeared on numerous live recordings, the middle part often including long solos and/or snippets of other songs. On the album
Mann Alive, the "As Above So Below" middle part has been replaced with a riff from "
Oh Well" and in recent years, the band often quoted "
Smoke on the Water" as well before returning to the main hook. Thus, their live performances of "Mighty Quinn" often run over ten minutes. It's probably the song most often played by Manfred Mann's Earth Band and usually appears as the last song of the regular set or the last encore. The Manfred Mann version is noted for
Klaus Voormann's use of a distinctive flute part. This was replaced in the Earth Band version with Manfred playing it on an organ.
Dylan versions A demo of 14 of the 1967
Basement Tapes recordings, including the first of two takes of "Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)", was produced in 1968, but was not intended for release. Recordings taken from the demos began appearing on
bootlegs, starting with
Great White Wonder, a live recording from 1969's
Isle of Wight Festival. The live version (titled "The Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo)") was also selected in 1971 for the second compilation of Dylan's career, ''
Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II''. When
Columbia finally released
The Basement Tapes in 1975, the song was not among the double album's 24 songs (although an Inuk was represented on the album cover, alongside Dylan,
The Band, and several other people meant to represent certain characters from some of Dylan's songs). However, ten years later in 1985, the second of the two 1967 takes appeared on the five-LP
Biograph set (this time titled "Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)"). This version was used again on
The Essential Bob Dylan, a compilation released in 2000. The first of the two 1967 takes was not officially released until 2014, on
The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete.
Variations in title of song The first release of the song, the #1 hit by Manfred Mann, which topped the UK charts in February 1968, was released as "Mighty Quinn". When Dylan released a live version of this song on his album
Self Portrait, in June 1970, the song was titled "The Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo)". This title was repeated when the same live recording was released on the album ''Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2'' in November 1971. When Dylan's original "
basement tapes" recording of the song, backed by The Band and recorded in
West Saugerties, New York in 1967, was eventually released as part of the compilation album
Biograph, in 1985, it was entitled "Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)"; this is the title according to the official Bob Dylan website. == Other versions ==