 Columbia Records eventually released the " Mr. Tambourine Man " single on April 12 , 1965 . The full , electric rock band treatment that the Byrds and producer Terry Melcher had given the song effectively created the template for the musical subgenre of folk rock . McGuinn 's melodic , jangling twelve @-@ string Rickenbacker guitar playing — which was heavily compressed to produce an extremely bright and sustained tone — was immediately influential and has remained so to the present day . The single also featured another major characteristic of the band 's sound : their clear harmony singing , which usually featured McGuinn and Clark in unison , with Crosby providing the high harmony . Additionally , Richie Unterberger has noted that the song 's abstract lyrics took rock and pop songwriting to new heights ; never before had such intellectual and literary wordplay been combined with rock instrumentation by a popular music group . 
