The one album Tom Petty never wanted to release

Tom Petty - Musician - Guitarist - Songwriter - Singer

(Credits: Far Out / Songwriters Hall of Fame)

Thursday 21 November 2024 20:45 UK

No artist should have to release an album at gunpoint. As much as they might think a certain idea doesn’t add up, forcing someone to make a record is like asking an uninspired painter to find an idea and paint a picture from scratch. Although Tom Petty earned the right to make his own hits when working with the Heartbreakers, he admitted that there was no good reason why a particular record had to be put out by the label.

But the Heartland rocker having a problem with his record company was nothing new either. Throughout his time in the spotlight, Petty has been fiercely critical of any label that sticks its nose where it doesn’t belong, whether that means suing them for ownership of his tracks , asking that the prices of his records not come out. out of reach of his fans, or send them the same album again when they thought Full moon fever it wasn’t good enough.

Any kid with that conviction would probably have been laughed out of the room at the time, but the more you think about it, he was right about a lot of the issues he was talking about. Many record labels are still as money hungry as ever and when looking at the issues he discussed in an album like The last DJ, it’s not like those faceless pop stars suddenly disappeared.

Still, Petty knew how to huddle in front of his house in certain areas and the band’s The greatest hits the album was the only time he seemed to compromise in the right way. He may not have seen the point in putting out a new song for the album, but given that he had one of his biggest hits in the tune in “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”, it doesn’t seem like it would have affected the album’s quality. record that.

When it came to random compilation albums though, Anthology: Over the years It never sat well with Petty. He had already given the fans what they had been asking for by releasing the box set play in 1995, so what was the point of releasing a record that was nothing more than a condensed version of it?

Since much of the material on the disc came from his studio albums, Petty felt that making this album made absolutely no sense, saying“With this Anthology album, I didn’t see the point of that album. But we were under a contract to deliver. So what we did was pick our favorites. As many of them as we could get in. Because they insisted on having all the hits. But since it was a double CD, we were allowed to choose more songs.”

While the album has some of the more interesting tracks from Heartbreakers history like “Two Gunslingers” and the rock and roll song “Hometown Blues,” the real deep cuts are why fans bought it, including songs like “Waiting for Tonight.” FROM play or one of the band’s best B-sides, “Surrender.”

So while it’s best to start with the main studio albums when it comes to Petty’s music, this is still a welcome alternative for those who don’t know where to start. You still have all the hits, but if you appreciate what the deep cuts have to offer, you’re in for a treasure in the back catalogue.

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