Upon releasing his second solo album, Wildflowers, in 1994, Tom Petty received a wave of critical acclaim. The album was also a commercial success, selling more than 3 million copies in the U.S. The rest of Petty’s life was not going nearly as well. He was about to divorce his wife of 22 years, Jane Benyo. Petty suffered from depression, self-medicated with h*roin, and became addicted.
Videos by American Songwriter
This was the backdrop for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ recording of the soundtrack for the 1996 romantic comedy She’s the One. Having to write and record songs on a tight deadline didn’t agree with Petty. He did carry over four songs that were left off of Wildflowers, and the band recorded two cover songs—Beck’s “A*shole” and Lucinda Williams’ “Change the Locks”—for the soundtrack. Still, Petty penned eight new songs and co-wrote “Climb That Hill” with Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell. The relatively rushed timetable for making the album colored the way Petty viewed Songs and Music from She’s the One as a finished product.
A Mixed Verdict
When artists think poorly of their own work, fans and critics often share their opinions. This wasn’t the case for Songs and Music from She’s the One—at least not universally. Campbell has said that he likes Songs and Music from She’s the One. In an interview for Variety, he also said that he doesn’t think the album is generally viewed as inferior to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ other work. He opined, “I never felt like it was diminished or perceived as a weaker album, per se, compared to our other albums. It was just the album we did that year.”
The album also received praise from some publications, including Rolling Stone and Q, both of which gave it a four-star rating out of five. Blender, on the other hand, issued a one-star rating, characterizing most of the soundtrack’s tunes as “sunny, forgettable songs.”
Fans collectively staked the middle ground. Songs and Music from She’s the One was certified Gold, but that was a significant step down from the previous Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers album. Into the Great Wide Open went Double Platinum. It was an even bigger letdown in comparison with Wildflowers, which was certified Triple Platinum. It was also the first album from Petty, either with his band or solo, that failed to produce a Top 40 single on the Billboard Hot 100 since You’re Gonna Get It!, which was released in 1978. “Walls (Circus)” was the lone Hot 100 entry, peaking at No. 69.
“A Bunch of Things Thrown Together”
From Petty’s perspective, Songs and Music from She’s the One may have been doomed from the start. In Petty: The Biography by Warren Zanes, Petty said, “When I took the job, I didn’t think it through. It’s not really an album. It’s just a bunch of things thrown together.” Ryan Ulyate, who served as co-producer and engineer for the 2021 revised version of the album, Angel Dream (Songs and Music from She’s the One), has said that the album “kind of left a bad taste in [Petty’s] mouth.” Ulyate added, “He didn’t really get a chance to put the time and effort into the finishing of it that he wished to, because there was a deadline they had to hit to make the movie.”
Petty also balked at a potential Ulyate-remastered version of Songs and Music from She’s the One. This was ostensibly because he was hoping to give the album a more radical overhaul at some point.
That said, Petty didn’t consider the album to be a total loss. For an episode of VH1 Storytellers in 1999, Petty said that he wanted to hold “Walls (Circus)” back from the soundtrack so that he could use it for another project. “I wrote this song for [the movie],” Petty explained, “and I liked it so much I wanted to take it back, but he wouldn’t let me take it back.”
Reissued as Angel Dream
Petty never got to refashion Songs and Music from She’s the One during his lifetime. Just as the Petty estate reissued an expanded version of Wildflowers, which was a project on Petty’s wishlist prior to his 2017 death, Songs and Music from She’s the One got a posthumous reworking. Angel Dream was released in 2021, a quarter-century after the original version first landed,
Angel Dream doesn’t just re-sequence the original’s track listing, but rather adds to and subtracts from it to create the listening experience one would get from a more cohesive album. “Angel Dream (No. 4),” “Hope You Never,” “California,” “Hope on Board,” “Hung Up and Overdue,” and “Airport” were removed from the new version, as was the lead single “Walls (Circus).” In their place, four outtakes were added, including a cover of J.J. Cale’s “Thirteen Days,” Angel Dream spent four weeks on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart, peaking at No. 2. The original Songs and Music from She’s the One only got as far as No. 15 on the chart. Angel Dream also made it to the Billboard 200, but only went as high as No. 74.
Angel Dream achieves its aim of feeling more like an album and less like a soundtrack, though the 1996 original is still an enjoyable listen. At the core of Petty’s disillusionment with the album was his inability to make it at the more relaxed pace that he preferred. Petty may not have shied away from making hard promises, but with Songs and Music from She’s the One, he had to make some hard compromises that he wound up regretting.
(Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images)
