Remember When: Tom Petty Dropped a Soundtrack Album

Tom Petty managed to stay in the music spotlight throughout his career without ever sacrificing his artistic integrity. As a result, you won’t find too many catalogs as inspected or respected as the one belonging to Petty.

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One Petty project that has faded to the background over the years is the music he wrote and recorded for the motion picture She’s the One, which was released in 1996. Caught in a limbo somewhere between soundtrack and proper Heartbreakers album, this collection of songs deserves a reappraisal.

Time on His Hands

In 1996, Tom Petty divorced his first wife and moved into a new home. He was coming off a prolific period in his career, following a long tour that punctuated his highly acclaimed 1994 album Wildflowers. It would have been easy for him to sit back and take five, but a restless energy pushed him into more work.

That work materialized when he was contacted about a new film called She’s the One. The film was written and directed by Hollywood up-and-comer Edward Burns. Petty had seen and liked Burns’ previous movie (The Brothers McMullen) and was given the opportunity to provide the soundtrack for the new one.

After screening the film, he decided he’d give it a shot. His original idea was to be a kind of compiler for the soundtrack, much as how Robbie Robertson came up with the music on numerous Martin Scorsese classics. He’d maybe chip in a song or two of his own, include some songs he loved that fit the film, and ask some famous friends to contribute material.

Calling the Heartbreakers

When Petty embarked upon this process, he found that he didn’t much enjoy calling people out of the blue to ask them for music. He also doubted if they’d cough up any good stuff. In the end, he decided he’d be responsible for all the music on She’s the One.

The good news is he had recorded so much music for Wildflowers that there were several songs in various states of progress he could reclaim for the movie. He also decided to spur the Heartbreakers into action to play the music, even though they were technically without an official drummer after Stan Lynch had departed. (Steve Ferrone, who would eventually join the band, ended up filling the role on most of the songs.)

It’s emblematic of the rushed nature of the project that She’s the One would include a couple of cover songs, something Petty didn’t normally do much on his previous albums. Nonetheless, the world was technically getting a new record from one of rock’s great artists, even if it was somewhat of a piecemeal scenario.

Revisiting the Music of She’s the One

It probably didn’t help the album that She’s the One, as a film, didn’t quite live up to its hype, either in terms of critical reaction or box office receipts. The somewhat confusing nature of the record, which included two songs that appear on the album twice in separate versions, also made it an odd fit into Petty’s body of work.

Nonetheless, there’s some great stuff there. “Walls (Circus),” which features an incredible backing vocal arrangement courtesy of Lindsey Buckingham, should have been a bigger hit single. The Heartbreakers knock their cover of Lucinda Williams’ “Change the Locks” out of the park. And both versions of “Angel Dream” represent Petty at his most romantic.

The quirky construction of Songs and Music from “She’s the One,” as it was officially titled, means that it’s a bit of a volatile listen. But you’re still getting top-notch songwriting and excellent performances, because Petty and his cohorts just didn’t have it them to fall below that standard. If you’ve forgotten about it, give it a listen and you might be pleasantly surprised.

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