March 19 marks a notable day in music history: It's the 50th anniversary of the release of Bob Dylan's first album.
One way to celebrate would be to order Chimes of Freedom, a diverse Dylan charity tribute organized by the folks at Amnesty International.
Head to Amnesty's site, and you can sample/purchase all 76 tracks on the record. Artists include Patti Smith, Pete Townshend, My Morning Jacket, Elvis Costello, Adele, Sting, Ziggy Marley and Evan Rachel Wood. (I told you it was diverse!)
A video for one of the covers has just been posted on YouTube; in it, 92-year-old Pete Seeger performs with young singers from his hometown of Beacon, N.Y. While it's good to see Pete on the mic, I was more fascinated by this short "making of" feature about the track:
Chimes of Freedom is available now for $19.99 and up. Bob Dylan, 70, is reportedly hard at work on his 35th album.
Whitney has been writing about pop culture for USA TODAY since 1999, when Pop Candy began as a weekly column. Her interests include music festivals, mustaches, Lost, comic books and Andy Warhol. She lives in New York City. More about Whitney | E-mail Whitney