By November 1967, this song was a Top 40 hit for
Peter, Paul and Mary. According to
Billboard, this version's "clever driving blues arrangement compliments the trio to the fullest."
Cash Box said that it is "
blues in a folk manner with plenty of funk."
Record World described it as "philosophy with a gritty beat." In Dylan's original, the chorus addresses two ladies—"Say hello to Valerie/Say hello to Vivien/Send them all my salary/On the waters of oblivion"—but Peter, Paul and Mary changed the second name to "Marion," displeasing Dylan. The trio's
Paul Stookey speculated that this mistake may have caused Dylan to consequently become disenchanted with the group: "We just became
other hacks that were doing his tunes." Patrick Humphries notes that, whether by accident or design, the chorus's two women originally named share the names of the two wives of the major 20th-century poet
T. S. Eliot. Lachlan MacKinnon writes that the lines do refer to Eliot's wives and are "remarkably shrewd", suggesting the poet's "strange combination of self-distancing and financial propriety". Peter, Paul and Mary's recording of the song was also included on their 1968 album
Late Again. This song also appeared on
Spooky Tooth's debut album ''
It's All About'', and on
Fotheringay's debut album, as well as
Albert Lee's
Black Claw & Country Fever sessions. All three versions substituted "Marion" for "Vivien". ==Personnel==