"Like a Rolling Stone" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on July 20, 1965 by Columbia Records. Its confrontational lyrics originated in an extended verse Dylan wrote in June 1965, when he returned exhausted from a grueling tour of England. Dylan distilled this draft into four verses and a chorus. He recorded "Like a Rolling Stone" a few weeks later as the opening track of his sixth studio album, Highway 61 Revisited. During a difficult two-day preproduction, Dylan struggled to find the essence of the song, which was demoed without success in 34 time. A breakthrough happened when he recorded it in a rock format and the rookie session musician Al Kooper improvised a Hammond organ riff.