When you think of Tom Petty’s catalog, his consistency of excellence likely first comes to mind. That’s what makes it tough to pick just four albums if you’re looking to start a vinyl collection of the man’s work.
You can make the case that the quartet below are his finest four albums. Even if not, they mostly represent various eras of his career, making them ideal to get your Petty collection up and running.
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‘Damn The Torpedoes’
Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers displayed moments of brilliance on their first two albums. But you could argue that their sound was more derivative of others on those records than it was something unique to them. Damn The Torpedoes solved that problem with the help of producer Jimmy Iovine. Iovine insisted on sonic perfection, putting the band through their paces in search of it. He also insisted that Petty go back through his songwriting archives, a move that unearthed essential tracks like “Don’t Do Me Like That” and “Louisiana Rain”. Many all-time acts delivered a masterpiece on their third go-round. You can certainly count Petty and his band in that number.
‘Hard Promises’
This was a tough call, as we debated including Southern Accents as the second LP chronologically on this list. But while Southern Accents includes stunning high points (the title track, “Rebels”, “The Best Of Everything”), it’s also somewhat inconsistent and disjointed in nature. We’re going instead with Hard Promises for solidifying the promise of Damn The Torpedoes and going even deeper with the songwriting. The album cuts here make a huge difference. There’s “The Insider”, a piercing duet with Stevie Nicks, “Something Big”, featuring Petty’s fill-in-your-own-blanks storytelling, and “You Can Still Change Your Mind”, the standout closer. Add those to the crackerjack singles, and you can tell that there are no holes on this record.
‘Full Moon Fever’
Petty didn’t really set out to consciously make a solo record when he recorded Full Moon Fever. It just sort of happened that way when he started working with Jeff Lynne and the other Heartbreakers (save Mike Campbell) didn’t show any interest in what he was doing. He was energized by the fresh challenge. His songwriting managed to get looser without losing its usual insight. Take, for example, “Free Fallin’”, which he started writing as a way of making Lynne laugh and then turned into a profound self-portrait. Even though the songs were made via copious overdubs, you still get a band feel from rocking tracks like “Runnin’ Down A Dream” and “I Won’t Back Down”. The ballads are stellar as well. Not a clunker on this record.
‘Echo’
This is the choice on the list that will probably engender the most arguments. Petty himself likely would have chosen Wildflowers, the album that preceded this one. As for Echo, Petty was somewhat torn after the fact over the darkness of the subject matter. He wrote and recorded it while his first marriage was falling apart, and you can hear the torment on tracks like “Room At The Top”, “No More”, and “One More Day, One More Night”. The Heartbreakers, even though they were in some turmoil as well, responded with a wonderful collective effort here as well. As dark night of the soul albums go, you won’t find too many that resonate like Echo.
Photo by Deanne Fitzmaurice/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images