Bob Dylan releases Frank Sinatra cover

The mocked-up album cover was in the style of legendary jazz label Blue Note records, the magazine said.

Bob Dylan released a surprise track on his website on Tuesday covering a Frank Sinatra staple, Full Moon and Empty Arms, fuelling talk of a new album by the iconic singer this year. The 72-year-old, whose Never Ending Tour hits Europe next month, also posted a picture of himself in what looked like a mocked-up album cover with the title Shadows in the Night.

Sinatra’s crooning voice on the Full Moon and Empty Arms is transposed into Dylan’s infamous growl on his version of the hit 1945 track, written by Buddy Kaye and Ted Mossman.

Dylan’s spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for more information, but told Rolling Stone: “This track is definitely from a forthcoming album due later on this year.”

The mocked-up album cover was in the style of legendary jazz label Blue Note records, the magazine said.

Public radio network NPR speculated that the hints might suggest an album of cover versions of classic tunes, something which he has done before with folk songs, in 1992’s Good As I’ve Been To You and World Gone Wrong (1993).

In 2009 Dylan released an album of Christmas songs, including Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, which was famously covered by Sinatra.

Dylan, famous for 1960s hits including The Times They are a-Changin’ in a long and varied career which has won him 11 Grammys including a Lifetime Achievement Award, turns 73 on May 24.