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Song of the Day #1,211: ‘To Find a Friend’ – Tom Petty

Three years after Into the Great Wide Open, Tom Petty shifted gears away from the Jeff Lynne-influenced work of his last two successful albums. 1994’s Wildflowers, produced by Rick Rubin, was Petty’s second solo album (though once again all of The Heartbreakers played on it).

It’s also arguably the best thing Petty has ever recorded. Sprawling and alternately beautiful and grungy, Wildflowers is the most mature and rich Petty album. Damn the Torpedoes, Full Moon Fever and this record form my Tom Petty Holy Trinity.

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Song of the Day #1,210: ‘The Dark of the Sun’ – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

There are two mistakes a recording artist can make when following up a successful album: releasing something too different from the last one, or releasing something too similar.

Tom Petty’s follow-up to Full Moon Fever, 1991’s Into the Great Wide Open, fell into the latter category. Though he officially re-teamed with The Heartbreakers to record the disc, he once again collaborated with Jeff Lynne for both songwriting and production and the result feels like an attempt to keep the Full Moon Fever magic going.

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Song of the Day #1,209: ‘Zombie Zoo’ – Tom Petty

Two years after releasing his most obscure album, Tom Petty would return with his most popular. But first he took an interesting detour.

In 1998, Petty stumbled onto a recording session with Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne, George Harrison and Bob Dylan. Harrison had left a guitar at Petty’s house and Petty accompanied him back to Dylan’s home studio after handing it over. The four men were laying down a track for the B-side of Harrison’s next single. They invited Petty to join.

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Song of the Day #1,208: ‘Jammin’ Me’ – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Tom Petty followed Southern Accents two years later with 1987’s Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough), an album that has been eclipsed by the records that preceded and followed it.

It’s funny how Tom Petty has recorded four or five records I count among my very favorites but four or five others that I don’t know at all. Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough) is a complete mystery to me. That’s not surprising, considering it’s the one album in Petty’s early catalog that isn’t represented on his greatest hits record. I guess Petty doesn’t find it very memorable himself.

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Song of the Day #1,207: ‘Rebels’ – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Jumping back into the Tom Petty theme weeks, we arrive at 1985’s Southern Accents. This is the second Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers album I consider a classic (the first being Damn the Torpedoes).

It’s not as well-regarded by Petty or the band, who disagreed about the direction of the record. It was intended to be a concept album about the south but the inclusion of several songs (including the hit ‘Don’t Come Around Here No More’) diluted the theme. Tempers rose during the recording and production process to the point that Petty shattered his hand punching a wall during the mixing of one track (today’s SOTD, in fact).

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