Jude Cole and Motels member Marty Jourard are just two of the notable names who make guest appearances here, but it’s Petty and the Heartbreakers who serve as Shannon’s primary backing band (this is also reportedly the only studio album that both original Heartbreakers bassist Ron Blair and his replacement Howie Epstein appear on!), so this disc is consequently a must-own for Heartbreakers fans. Enter Petty, a longtime fan who offered to produce a comeback album for the ‘60s star. But though he had been an early champion of the Beatles (even covering their song “From Me to You” before the Fab Four’s own version finally landed on the American charts!), his career was ironically derailed by the British Invasion and his run of hits would come to an end by early 1965.
This Michigan-born rocker had been one of the biggest pre-Beatles pop stars of the ‘60s, scoring such major hits as “Hats Off to Larry,” “Little Town Flirt,” “Keep Searchin’ (We’ll Follow the Sun),” and, most memorably of all, the chart-topping “Runaway” (easily one of the most melodically sophisticated Number One hits of the early ‘60s). See if you have them all! We bet there’s some here that you’ve still yet to discover!ĭrop Down and Get Me, Del Shannon (1982, Network) He’s written hits for other artists – including Lone Justice’s stellar “Ways to Be Wicked” (which can be found on their 1985 self-titled debut) and Rosanne Cash’s “Never Be You” (a rare co-write between Petty and Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench) – and lent his vocal and guitar talents to countless others, just sixteen of which we’ve singled out to spotlight here. Nor could Petty ever turn down a chance to help out a friend or one of his idols if his schedule permitted, and his discography is so, so much more than just the studio albums he cut himself, with and without the Heartbreakers. Indeed, Petty was reportedly a very loyal personality, and it shows not only in the remarkably low turnover of musicians in the Heartbreakers over their four decades together and Petty’s unexpected – and virtually unprecedented for any artist of Petty’s magnitude – late-career move to revive his pre-fame band Mudcrutch with old friends Randall Marsh and Tom Leadon. Instead, Petty fought – and fought hard – for the rights of the artist, and musicians everywhere knew they had a friend in Petty. Though the late, great Tom Petty’s career certainly had its share of turmoil and personal setbacks – most notably, the quick demise of the first label he recorded for, Shelter, and his all-too-frequent public battles with MCA in their earliest years together (first over their quest to obtain his publishing upon their absorption of Shelter and later over the sticker prices of his albums, which Petty once threatened to combat by naming one of his albums $8.98 ) – Petty never let his cynicism over industry practices diminish his love of music and compel him to walk away from the business as so many other artists who have suffered through much less have done.