YOU RANK ME BABY, YEAH YOU RATE ME 1-2 - ILM Artist Poll #71 - Tom Petty (results)

That's where I first heard it. I wasn't sure if Elizabethtown had any kind of following.

Perhaps not the film, but it came out when people were still buying the soundtracks to Cameron Crowe movies.

wow "It'll All Work Out" is beautiful...i'm sure i listened to it when i was making my deep cuts playlist a couple years ago but i don't remember it, which is crazy because it's great, probably woulda voted for it if i stumbled across it in my recent listening. ton of very sad youtube-esque comments on here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APeP73X0Wc4

I like how you're warming up to Let Me Up, ship.

i was just thinking earlier about how i feel about the "Free Fallin'" scene in Jerry Maguire...has to be the biggest use of a Petty song in a movie, right? mixed feelings about the movie and the scene but i think it actually did help me think of the song in terms of being kind of a cry of desperation instead of just a catchy chorus.

wow, "breakdown" seems insanely low to me at #10. the classic rockiest of his classic rock staples. such a great groove. and that riff. and those backing vocals.

It'll All Work Out is unique in how it blends Celtic folk and Far East overtones/undertones. Never quite heard anything like it.

this poll has made me really wanna get into cougar town.

Surprised Breakdown isn't higher but that's pretty good. I got the first album when it was the only album, and Breakdown sounded unlike anything else I'd ever heard, to my kid earholes.

I've been trying to put my finger on exactly what makes so much Tom Petty great. He's remarkably unambitious - little in the way of big-picture political statements or aspirational poetry - and the skill of his band is what tempers some of his more cliched instincts. Yet maybe that's just it. He doesn't just keep it simple, he keeps it tasteful, which is a whole 'nother skill set, and just as the Heartbreakers are totally ace at turning something boilerplate into rock and roll gold, he's always proved receptive to his band and the ideas they bring, which is another underrated skill set that few bandleaders have managed to maintain for so long.

~on the other hand~ this is a hell of a showing for two and a half minutes of basically a groove and one lick

and to these earholes it ~still~ sounds fresh

i was just thinking earlier about how i feel about the "Free Fallin'" scene in Jerry Maguire...has to be the biggest use of a Petty song in a movie, right?

Yes, but:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW9k44sDctI

Something about Petty and driving goes well in movies, I guess.

Those old enough to remember: was this song a shock in early '85?

The video was on heavy heavy rotation, and obviously it's a creepy video, though not nearly as creepy (literally) as Owner of a Lonely Heart which was also a hit around the same time.

At the time, my local newspaper (The Lake County News-Herald) had a column that reviewed music videos (!), and I remember them trashing "Don't Come Around Here No More" for being mean and violent, even dropping in a "We are not amused."

"Breakdown" was my #12 -- I would've voted it higher but it always leaves me frustratingly wanting more! I guess that's the genius of the Heartbreakers; the entire song comes and goes so quickly, but even in that short time they establish such an amazing space and feel that you can't help but want more from it. A lesser band would have spun it out into eight minutes, but Petty said, "This is the song, it's done, deal." I *almost* gave a nod to the live version on Pack Up The Plantation for its longer length and crazy J. Geils rap in the middle, but figured I'd be the only one.

Still, not a lot of bands would give a song like this and my upcoming #3 that amount of space in the arrangement. It's not that one featured player lays back a little -- EVERYONE lays back, and the song is better for it.

As noted on the voting thread, Dwight Twilley is supposedly the one who said "You oughta take that guitar lick from the outro and use it in the intro." Good call, Dwight.

Speaking of Petty/"American Girl" In The Movies...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TDdKeb_94Q

http://i.imgur.com/yNHIfwm.jpg

9. A Woman in Love (It's Not Me) – 251 points (9 votes, one #1)
http://youtu.be/fKDYErlu5Kc

I guess it's a long shot, I figure it's pretty much hits from here on (apart from Straight Into Darkness, which I just assume is in here)

OTM. The remaining songs can be figured out pretty easily, though that's bad ILM form to do on this thread.

x-post---A Woman In Love was not in my internal calculations, so now my whole theory is shot. I gave you everythign, you threw it all away!!

According to my revised calculations, a major hit is not going to chart. Hmmmm

ooops, never mind. I didn't see Don't Come Around Here No More.

Anyway, I never really liked A Woman In Love, it seems like an inferior version of Here Comes My Girl.

no way. if anything, it's Breakdown turned into a real goddamn song, with duck dunn on bass and the rest of the band on fire.

i initially turned in a ballot with one song listed twice, and when i realized my mistake, "A Woman In Love" is the song i added to my ballot. one of those songs that seemed to kinda disappear more once it was left off Greatest Hits, really a shame.

I have this album but for some reason this song has never stood out to me

no way. if anything, it's Breakdown turned into a real goddamn song, with duck dunn on bass and the rest of the band on fire.

Good point. But there are some similarities to Here Comes My Girl, they're both track 2, both have spoken verses, soaring chorus.

it's also not a spoken verse! def a track 2 with a soaring chorus tho :)

btw a less ethical pollrunner would have definitely moved "a woman in love" a couple notches up his own ballot to make sure it placed ahead of...

http://i.imgur.com/TNrqjA2.jpg

8. You Got Lucky – 253 points (10 votes, one #1)
http://youtu.be/mtLpZWNyM0I

i used to think of that as one of his weaker hits but it's got so many vocal and instrumental hooks, that melody that goes from a high keyboard line to a low guitar lead is so cool.

hey it's his song in a minor key!
haha, normally something this dated would wear on me, but you know, good love is hard to find.

the video was a vv big deal at the time. that little intro before the song was a major innovation for a promo vid and obj set TP on a long course of wacky, attention-grabbing videos.

history clearly proves me wrong, but tbh imo the "a woman in love" video tops all of them. (tho i have a soft spot for the Little Nemo conceit in "runnin' down a dream")

(dunno why autocorrect would find "obj" so preferable to "obv"...)

tho i have a soft spot for the Little Nemo conceit in "runnin' down a dream"

I do too but it looks terrible in execution unfortunately.

Love this song, the video, the "good little love is hard to find" bit (or whatever it is he mushmouths his way through there)

There are about five or 6 songs I like more than this on Long After Dark.

I foresee a tie coming up because there are 8 more songs that must be accounted for.

rogermexico otm about the "Woman in Love" video, it's great. I love the song, too -- had it at #10. One of my favorite Petty vocals, especially the "Well all right, do whatcha want" verse.

The ubiquity of Petty's songs on MTV and AOR radio create the impression that he scored lots of hits, but how many posters know he only has three top tens, one of which isn't "Rebels" and the biggest is "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around"? He's got loads of top twenties though.

lol one of which isn't "Refugee," that is

http://i.imgur.com/K3MyxPr.jpg

7. Don't Do Me Like That – 318 points (12 votes, one #1)
http://youtu.be/I5sTa2gMlJM

xpost

You're right about the videos exaggerating his pop presence. He has a lot fewer top 10s than Bruce, Seger, Mellancamp, Bryan Adams or any of the other Wilburys.

Also, hooray for "Don't Do Me Like That." Deserved to be the big hit from Torpedoes, just a killer tune and the band is so good on this one.

my #1!

http://i.imgur.com/ejjDnip.jpg

6. Refugee – 326 points (12 votes, two #1s)
http://youtu.be/fFnOfpIJL0M

As a New Zealander, it feels like he translates better to New Zealand than Seger, Mellancamp, or Bryan Adams. He's had two number one albums here (Torpedoes, Hard Promises).

American Girl is also what the Senator's daughter is rocking out to right before being abducted in 'Silence of the Lambs'.

Re: Refugee (which I somehow have not heard used ironically even once during the whole Syrian debate) -- I had a friend in college who hated Tom Petty solely because the line about "kidnapped-tied up-taken away-held for ransom" drove him crazy. "It has too many words!"

one of three of his songs that could be #1 for me on any given day, the others being Even The Losers & The Waiting.

I'm not crazy about Refugee, but it has a hell of an intro.

Ever since Amy Ray covered it I've always admired the versatility of "Refugee" as a sort of all-purpose protest song.

according to Iovine in the doc, it took the Heartbreakers days to get the intro right.

agreed Josh.

I am certain of four of the top five but the fifth eludes me. Do not tell me When The Time Comes is not on this list. DON'T TELL ME.

I'm still trying to squeeze 6 songs into the last 5. Looks like the title track from 'Into The Great Wide Open' missed out on the top 40 altogether, right?