Thomas Earl Petty was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He was the leader of the rock bands Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Mudcrutch and a member of the late 1980s supergroup the Traveling Wilburys. He was also a successful solo artist.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were an American rock band from Gainesville, Florida. Formed in 1976, the band originally comprised lead singer and rhythm guitarist Tom Petty, lead guitarist Mike Campbell, keyboardist Benmont Tench, drummer Stan Lynch and bassist Ron Blair. In 1982, Blair, weary of the touring lifestyle, departed the band. His replacement, Howie Epstein, stayed with the band for the next two decades. In 1991, Scott Thurston joined the band as a multi-instrumentalist—mostly on rhythm guitar and second keyboard. In 1994, Steve Ferrone replaced Lynch on drums. Blair returned to the Heartbreakers in 2002, the year before Epstein's death. The band had a long string of hit singles including "Breakdown", "American Girl", "Refugee", "The Waiting", "Learning to Fly", and "Mary Jane's Last Dance", among many others, that stretched over several decades of work.
Nils Hilmer Lofgren is an American rock musician, recording artist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. Along with his work as a solo artist, he has been a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band since 1984, a member of Crazy Horse, and founder/frontman of the band Grin. Lofgren was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the E Street Band in 2014.
MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc., which later became part of Universal Music Group.
Damn the Torpedoes is the third studio album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, released on October 19, 1979. This was the first of three Petty albums originally released by the Backstreet Records label, distributed by MCA Records. It built on the commercial success and critical acclaim of his two previous albums and reached #2 on the Billboard album chart. The album went on to become certified Triple Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Shelter Records was a U.S. record label started by Leon Russell and Denny Cordell that operated from 1969 to 1981. The company established offices in both Los Angeles and Tulsa, Russell's home town, where the label sought to promote a "workshop atmosphere" with a recording studio in a converted church, adjoining houses for artists working at the studio, and other facilities. The Tulsa recording studio was housed in the historic The Church Studio. Russell remained with Shelter until 1976, when he and Cordell fell out. In a settlement, Cordell then became sole owner of the label, while Russell left to start his own label, Paradise Records.
Hard Promises is the fourth studio album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released on May 5, 1981, on Backstreet Records.
Long After Dark is the fifth studio album by American rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, released November 2, 1982, on Backstreet Records. Notable for the MTV hit "You Got Lucky", the album was also the band's first to feature Howie Epstein on bass and harmony vocals. Epstein's vocals are prevalent throughout the album and from that point on, became an integral part of the Heartbreakers' sound.
Andrew Newmark is an American session drummer who was a member of Sly and the Family Stone and has played with George Harrison, John Lennon, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Ron Wood and Roxy Music.
Scott Troy Thurston is an American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter, and session musician. He was a member of the Stooges, and of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, in which he sang harmony vocals and played guitar, keyboards, and harmonica.
David Hungate is an American bass guitarist noted as a member of the Los Angeles pop-rock band Toto from 1976 to 1982 and again from 2014 to 2015, and the son of judge William L. Hungate. Along with most of his Toto bandmates, Hungate did sessions on a number of hit albums of the 1970s, including Boz Scaggs's Silk Degrees and Alice Cooper's From the Inside.
Jimmy Maelen was an American percussionist from the 1960s to 1980s, who worked with many artists including Roxy Music, Bryan Ferry, Peter Gabriel, James Taylor, Dire Straits, Barry Manilow, Alice Cooper, Kiss, Madonna, Bryan Adams, Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger, David Bowie and John Lennon. He also played on hit records by Bob James, Duran Duran, Carly Simon, Barbra Streisand, Yoko Ono, Meatloaf, Alice Cooper, BJ Thomas, and many others.
Pack Up the Plantation: Live! is the first official live album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, released in November 1985 by MCA Records. It was released as a double LP and, in slightly truncated form, a single cassette or compact disc. A concert film of the same name was released on home video in 1986. Stevie Nicks sings on two songs, including the US single "Needles and Pins", which reached No. 37 on the Billboard Hot 100.
FM: The Original Movie Soundtrack is the original soundtrack to the 1978 film FM.
Jerry Hey is an American trumpeter, flugelhornist, horn arranger, string arranger, orchestrator and session musician who has played on hundreds of commercial recordings, including Michael Jackson's Thriller, Rock with You, "Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough", "Workin’ Day and Night" and the flugelhorn solo on Dan Fogelberg's hit "Longer". Additionally, he has performed with artists such as George Benson, Nik Kershaw, Al Jarreau, Barbra Streisand, Donna Summer, Earth, Wind & Fire, Whitney Houston, Frank Sinatra, George Duke, Lionel Richie, Rufus and Chaka Khan, Natalie Cole, Aretha Franklin, Patti Austin, among many others.
"Don't Do Me Like That" is a song written by Tom Petty and recorded by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It was released in November 1979 as the first single from the album Damn the Torpedoes (1979). It reached number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the band's only Top 10 hit. The single also peaked at number 3 in Canada. In the UK, despite airplay by Capital Radio in the summer of 1980, the track failed to make the Top 75 chart.
The Live Anthology is a live box set by American rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. The box set was released by Reprise Records on November 23, 2009, in a number of formats, with the standard CD and download formats, composed of 48 tracks.
Keith Sykes is an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. More than 100 of Sykes' songs have been recorded by John Prine, Rosanne Cash, The Judds, Jerry Jeff Walker, and George Thorogood, though he may be best known for co-writing "Volcano", the title track of Jimmy Buffett's 1979 album.
An American Treasure is a 2018 compilation album and box set of Tom Petty, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Mudcrutch released by Reprise Records on September 28, 2018. The set includes several rare and unreleased songs alongside more obscure album tracks that showcase Petty's songwriting. The majority of the content is Heartbreakers material but there are also several solo songs and some recordings by Mudcrutch. Critical reception has been positive.
Phil Jones is an American drummer, percussionist, and record producer. Jones played percussion with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in the early 80's both live and in the studio, while also playing drums and percussion on Tom Petty's solo album Full Moon Fever, which included the hit songs "Free Fallin'", "I Won't Back Down", and "Runnin' Down a Dream". His work outside the group includes playing on the Del Shannon albums Drop Down and Get Me and Rock On!. He currently runs his own recording studio in Los Angeles called 'Robust Recordings'.
