Carol Dennis

Carol Dennis, born Carolyn Dennis on April 12, 1954, is an American singer and Broadway performer whose career has spanned studio recording, television, and the stage. She has worked professionally under the names Carol Dennis and Carol Dennis-Dylan.

Dennis built a substantial career as a backup singer, contributing vocals to most of Bob Dylan's albums released between Street-Legal in 1978 and Down in the Groove in 1988. Her session work extended to a wide range of prominent artists, including Minnie Riperton, Táta Vega, The Carpenters, Kenny Loggins, Bruce Springsteen, and Michael Jackson, whose HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I featured her contributions. She also sang backup for Wonderlove and was a member of the performance group the Young Americans. In 1991, Dennis provided the singing voice for the made-for-television film The Josephine Baker Story, which starred Lynn Whitfield in the title role. Earlier, in 1982, she performed the role of Poppea in a modern adaptation of Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea, staged at Xenon Discothèque in New York City.

Her Broadway career ran from 1984 to 2007 and included credits in The Color Purple, Street Corner Symphony, Big River, The Wiz, and Once on This Island. Among those, she was a member of the original cast of Big River, which opened in 1985, and The Color Purple, which she joined in 2005.

In June 1986, Dennis married Bob Dylan, becoming his second wife. Their daughter, Desiree Gabrielle Dennis-Dylan, was born on January 31, 1986. The couple divorced in October 1992. Their marriage and the existence of their child remained unknown to the public and media until 2001, when author Howard Sounes revealed the details in his biography Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan.