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.
Benjamin Montmorency "Benmont" Tench III is an American musician and singer, and a founding member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were an American rock band formed in Gainesville, Florida, 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, remained with the band for the next two decades. In 1991, Scott Thurston joined the band as a multi-instrumentalist, primarily on rhythm guitar and secondary 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" (1979), "The Waiting" (1981), "Learning to Fly" (1991), and "Mary Jane's Last Dance" (1993), among many others, that stretched over several decades of work.
Yuppie, short for "young urban professional" or "young upwardly-mobile professional", is a term coined in the early 1980s for a young professional person working in a city. The term is first attested in 1980, when it was used as a fairly neutral demographic label, but by the mid-to-late 1980s, when a "yuppie backlash" developed due to concerns over issues such as gentrification, some writers began using the term pejoratively.
Full Moon Fever is the debut solo studio album by American musician Tom Petty, released on April 24, 1989, by MCA Records. It features contributions from members of his band the Heartbreakers, notably Mike Campbell, as well as Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, and George Harrison, Petty's bandmates in the Traveling Wilburys. The record showcases Petty exploring his musical roots with nods to his influences. The songwriting primarily consists of collaborations between Petty and Lynne, who was also a producer on the album. Full Moon Fever became a commercial and critical success, peaking at No. 3 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and being certified 5× platinum in the United States and 6× platinum in Canada.
Michael Wayne Campbell is an American guitarist and vocalist. He was a member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and co-wrote many of the band's hits with Petty, including "Refugee", "Here Comes My Girl", "You Got Lucky", and "Runnin' Down a Dream". Outside of The Heartbreakers, he has worked as a session guitarist and songwriter with a number of other acts, including composing and playing on the Don Henley hits "The Boys of Summer" & "The Heart of the Matter" as well as working on most of Stevie Nicks's solo albums. Campbell, along with Neil Finn, joined Fleetwood Mac to replace lead guitarist Lindsey Buckingham on their world tour in 2018–2019. After the end of that tour, he has been involved in his own band, the Dirty Knobs. As of 2022, the Dirty Knobs released two albums.
Into the Great Wide Open is the eighth studio album by American rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Released in July 1991, it was the band's last with MCA Records. The album was the second that Petty produced with Jeff Lynne, following the successful Full Moon Fever (1989).
"Mary Jane's Last Dance" is a song written by Tom Petty about a girl from Indiana that moved to Gainesville, FL and recorded by American rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It was recorded while Petty was recording his Wildflowers album and was produced by Rick Rubin, guitarist Mike Campbell, and Petty. The sessions would prove to be the last to include drummer Stan Lynch before his eventual departure in 1994. This song was first released as part of the Greatest Hits album in 1993. It rose to No. 14 on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming Petty's first Billboard top-20 hit of the 1990s, and also topped the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart for two weeks. Internationally, the song reached No. 2 in Portugal and No. 5 in Canada.
Stanley Joseph "Stan" Lynch is an American musician, songwriter and record producer. He was the original drummer for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for 18 years until his departure in 1994.
"Free Fallin" is the opening track from American musician Tom Petty's debut solo album, Full Moon Fever (1989). The song was written by Petty and his writing partner for the album, Jeff Lynne, and features Lynne on backing vocals and bass guitar. The duo wrote and recorded the single in two days, making it the first song completed for Full Moon Fever.
William A. Bottrell is an American record producer and songwriter. He has collaborated with Michael Jackson, Madonna, Electric Light Orchestra and Sheryl Crow.
Highway Companion is the third and final solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Tom Petty. It was released on July 25, 2006, and charted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 album chart. The album was produced by former Traveling Wilburys bandmate Jeff Lynne, who also produced Petty's highly acclaimed first solo album, Full Moon Fever, as well as the Heartbreakers' next album Into the Great Wide Open. Petty released the album through Rick Rubin's American Recordings label and Warner Bros. Records, where Petty has had a record contract since his second solo album, Wildflowers. The tracks "Saving Grace" and "Big Weekend" were released July 4, 2006 on the iTunes Music Store. It ended up being Petty's only album for American Recordings, as that label moved to Columbia Records distribution in 2007; Warner Bros retained the rights to Petty, eventually reassigning him to subsidiary label Reprise Records.
"Even the Losers" is a song written by Tom Petty and recorded by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It is featured on their breakthrough hit 1979 album, Damn the Torpedoes. It is also featured on the band's 1993 Greatest Hits album. A live recording of it is included in the box set The Live Anthology. It has become one of the highest regarded songs of Petty's repertoire. The song was not released as a single except in Australia. The song peaked at #11 on the Billboard lyric find.
"I Won't Back Down" is a song by American rock musician Tom Petty. It was released in April 1989 as the lead single from his first solo album, Full Moon Fever. The song was co-written by Petty and Jeff Lynne, his writing partner for the album. It reached number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Album Rock Tracks chart for five weeks, starting the album's road to multi-platinum status.
"Don't Come Around Here No More" is a song written by Tom Petty of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Dave Stewart of Eurythmics. It was released in February 1985 as the lead single from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' Southern Accents album.
"Not Alone Any More" is a song by the British–American supergroup the Traveling Wilburys from their 1988 album Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1. It was sung by Roy Orbison and serves as his main contribution to the album. The song was written mainly by Jeff Lynne, although all five members of the Wilburys are credited as songwriters.
Borrowed & Blue is the fifth studio album by Australian country musician Troy Cassar-Daley, released on 19 April 2004 and peaked at number 89 on the ARIA Charts. The album is a covers album in which Cassar-Daley acknowledges as songs "he loves and that have influenced his own writing and singing style".
"Time to Move On" is a song by Tom Petty from his second solo studio album Wildflowers (1994). A live version was released on the live disc of the 2020 box set Wildflowers & All the Rest. The song is similar to the title track, in the same vein but with some orchestration.
The Best of Everything is a 2019 greatest hits album with recordings made by Tom Petty, with his backing band The Heartbreakers, as a solo artist, and with Mudcrutch. It was released on March 1.
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'.
