The Band – The Weight

"The Weight" is the first single released from The Band's debut album, Music from Big Pink. Although only a minor hit, the song is now recognized as one of the most important songs in the rock canon:

• CBC placed it 15th in 50 Tracks: The Canadian Edition in 2005 and 4th in the best Canadian songs ever in 2013
• Chart magazine's Great Canadian Music ranked it 14th in 1996 and 7th in 2005
• Mar*Star called it the 31st best Canadian song in 1992 and 4th in 2011
• Dave Marsh named it the 616th greatest single ever made in The Heart of Rock and Soul
• Bob Mersereau placed it 3rd in The Top 100 Canadian Singles in 2010
• New Musical Express called it the 100th top single of all time (1976) and the 30th best song of the 1960s (2012)
• Pitchfork named it the 13th greatest song of the 1960s
• Rolling Stone ranked it the 41st greatest song of all time in 2004 and 2010

Click below for:

• the original album version
• the Aretha Franklin cover version
• the Supremes and The Temptations cover version
• the Last Waltz live version with The Staples
• a live Gillian Welch version with Old Crow Medicine Show
• a live Bruce Springsteen version

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Personnel

• Jaime Robbie Robertson – electric and acoustic guitar
• Rick Danko – bass guitar, fiddle, vocals
• Richard Manuel – piano, orgran, drums, vocals
• Garth Hudson – electronic organ, piano, clavinet, soprano and tenor saxophone
• Levon Helm – drums, tambourine, vocals

• The Band – Acadian Driftwood (song)
• The Band – Up On Cripple Creek (song)
• The Band – The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (song)
• Band – Music from Big Pink (album)
• The Band – The Band (album)
• The Band – The Last Waltz (album)