About The Song
“Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” was originally written by Bob Dylan in 1962. Dylan composed the song after his girlfriend Suze Rotolo left New York for an extended stay in Italy to study at the University of Perugia. He recorded it on November 14, 1962, at Columbia Recording Studios in New York City. The track was released on May 27, 1963, as part of Dylan’s second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, and also served as the B-side to the single “Blowin’ in the Wind.” The melody draws from the public domain traditional song “Who’s Gonna Buy Your Chickens When I’m Gone,” which Dylan learned from folksinger Paul Clayton, who had adapted it in his 1960 recording “Who’s Gonna Buy You Ribbons When I’m Gone?” Dylan incorporated a couple of lines from Clayton’s version, leading to a lawsuit that was settled with compensation to Clayton shortly before they toured together in February 1964.
Peter, Paul and Mary’s cover was recorded in 1963, produced by Albert Grossman, who managed both Dylan and the trio. Grossman offered several of Dylan’s songs to the group, and they selected “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” along with “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “Quit Your Lowdown Ways” for their third album, In the Wind, released in October 1963. The single version was issued by Warner Bros. Records on August 28, 1963, with “Autumn to May” as the B-side. The recording is 3:16 in length and falls under the folk rock genre.
On the Billboard charts, Peter, Paul and Mary’s version entered the Hot 100 at position 67 on September 8, 1963. It peaked at number 9 on October 20, 1963, for one week and remained on the chart for 10 weeks. It also reached number 2 on the Adult Contemporary (Easy Listening) chart. The single followed their earlier hit “Blowin’ in the Wind,” which had peaked at number 2 in August 1963, helping to popularize Dylan’s work.
Side information includes the song’s inspiration from Dylan’s life in Greenwich Village, where he and Rotolo lived near a poultry supplier, influencing lyrics like “When your rooster crows at the break of dawn.” Rotolo, an artist and civil rights activist featured on the Freewheelin’ album cover, died on February 24, 2011, at age 67. The Four Seasons released a cover under the pseudonym the Wonder Who? in 1965, which peaked at number 12 on the Hot 100.
Expert comments include Dylan’s own statement that the song is not a love song but “a statement that maybe you can say to make yourself feel better. It’s as if you were talking to yourself.” AllMusic critic William Ruhlmann described Peter, Paul and Mary’s rendition as “understated.” Radio personality Bob Leszczak noted it was done “in typical fashion.” Cash Box magazine called it an “infectious medium-paced country-styled folk item with a haunting, extremely pretty melody.” Authors Phillippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon in Bob Dylan: All the Songs detailed the settlement with Clayton.
The song has appeared in various media, including the 1991 film Dogfight, the 2011 film The Help, episodes of The Walking Dead in 2016, This Is Us in 2019 and 2021, Emergence in 2020, and The Kitchen in 2019 with a cover by Melanie.
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Lyric
It ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe
It don’t matter, anyhow
And it ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe
If you don’t know by now
When your rooster crows at the break of dawn
Look out your window and I’ll be gone
You’re the reason I’m travelin’ on
Don’t think twice, it’s all rightIt ain’t no use in turnin’ on your light, babe
The light I never knowed
It ain’t no use in turnin’ on your light, babe
I’m on the dark side of the road
Still, I wish there were somethin’ you would do or say
To try and make me change my mind and stay
We never did too much talkin’ anyway
So don’t think twice, it’s all rightI’m walkin’ down that long, lonesome road, babe
Where I’m bound, I can’t tell
But goodbye is too good a word, gal
So I’ll just say fare thee well
I ain’t sayin’ you treated me unkind
You could’ve done better, but I don’t mind
You just sorta wasted my precious time
But don’t think twice, it’s all rightIt ain’t no use in callin’ out my name, gal
Like you never did before
It ain’t no use in callin’ out my name, gal
I can’t hear you any more
I’m a-thinkin’ and a-wond’rin’ all the way down the road
I once loved a woman, a child I’m told
I give her my heart, but she wanted my soul
But don’t think twice, it’s all right