When you said “Tom Petty,” you didn’t think “blues” – that is, until Mojo, his first album with the Heartbreakers in eight years, on which authentic Chicago and Delta shuffles were the order of the day. Petty sounded right at home amid the ringing 12-string guitars, and guest vocalist Lindsey Buckingham lifted each chorus high into the California sun. The record was loose and engaging and featured a number of stellar cuts, such as Walls (Circus). Overall, Petty sounded relaxed and jovial, especially on the gently rocking You Don’t Know How It Feels, on which he gave radio censors this beaut: ‘ Let me get to the point/Let’s roll another joint.’ĭespite a pair of recent solo successes, Petty hit a low period personally in the mid-90s, so he reconvened the Heartbreakers for his first and only film score for She’s The One. For his second solo disc (which, of course, featured some of the Heartbreakers), he turned to maverick producer Rick Rubin, whose minimalist approach provided for a grittier and more intimate vibe. Tom Petty Petty entered his mid-40s with nothing left to prove. Hits poured from the disc, but among its other treasures was A Face In The Crowd, a plaintive and altogether chilling ballad in which Petty – dispensing with any of his characteristic vocal stylizations – recalls the beauty of falling in love from out of nowhere.

The band’s debut album boasted two smashing singles (Handle With Care and End Of The Line), but among its album cuts, Last Night, Petty’s cheeky, Caribbean-spiced ditty, was a particular highlight.Īlthough billed as a solo album, all of the Heartbreakers with the exception of Stan Lynch appeared on Full Moon Fever, a three-way co-production by Petty, Mike Campbell and Jeff Lynne. Petty might have been the awestruck “young kid” in the Wilburys supergroup, which also included heavyweights Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, George Harrison and Jeff Lynne, but he more than held up his end. After the meticulously crafted Southern Accents, Petty and his band got back to stripped-down, ramshackle rocking, and this Stonesy effort (co-written by Bob Dylan) packed grit and good humour alongside biting social commentary. Eddie Murphy wasn’t too pleased about being namechecked in Petty’s laundry list of overexposed 80s celebrities – though there’s no word what Vanessa Redgrave or Joe Piscopo thought.

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