#298 Tom Petty, 'Full Moon Fever' (1989)

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The debut solo album by Tom Petty was a smash hit, but it wasn’t without controversy. Following the 1987 Heartbreakers tour supporting the record, ‘Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough),’ Petty decided it was time to record a solo album. And while it was a record without his Heartbreakers, all of them with the exception of drummer, Stan Lynch feature on the album. Produced by Electric Light Orchestra’s Jeff Lynne, the album has a cleaner, more commercial sound than Petty had come to be known with the Heartbreakers. This record doesn’t just feature key members of The Heartbreakers, but also all members of his other band, Traveling Wilburys, except for Bob Dylan (Lynne, Roy Orbison and George Harrison).

The album opens with the song that would come to be known as his signature song, ‘Free Fallin’,’ going into ‘I Won’t Back Down,’ which features the unmistakeable guitar playing of George Harrison (although the Harrisonesque slide guitar is actually played by Heartbreaker, Mike Campbell and not Harrison). 15 years later, that song become the subject of controversy as a similarity between it and Sam Smith’s Grammy Award-winning song, ‘Stay With Me.’ Petty and Lynne were ultimately added as songwriters and awarded 12.5% of that song’s royalties. Also on this album is one of my favourite Petty songs, ‘Runnin’ Down A Dream,’ featuring one of my favourite guitar riffs. Tom Petty is my biggest regret. After having seen most of my bucket list artists live, Tom Petty was bumped up to #1 on the list. He notoriously didn’t like long flights and so seeing him live in Australia was a bit of a pipedream. I had hoped it would happen one day, but unfortunately that wasn’t to be following his untimely death in 2017. Still hurts!

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