How great is the Tom Petty album "Wildflowers"?

[KevShmev]

For me, option 1 all the way.  A damn fine record from start to finish, the best Petty ever did, and one that always sounds fresh and great every time I spin it.

[Zydar]

Love it, one of his very best. I went with option #1.

Wildflowers, You Don't Know How It Feels, It's Good To Be King, Only A Broken Heart, Crawling Back To You etc. All top songs there.

[KevShmev]

Love it, one of his very best. I went with option #1.

Wildflowers, You Don't Know How It Feels, It's Good To Be King, Only A Broken Heart, Crawling Back To You etc. All top songs there.

 

I'd put A Higher Place in that top tier as well.  The mood and atmosphere of Crawling Back to You is incredible.

[SystematicThought]

More of a Full Moon Fever guy. But I have a lot of childhood memories attached to it, so it may be nostalgia speaking.

[KevShmev]

More of a Full Moon Fever guy. But I have a lot of childhood memories attached to it, so it may be nostalgia speaking.

That's a good album, too, but I feel that Wildflowers has better (and more) deep cuts than Full Moon Fever.  Runnin' Down a Dream and A Face in the Crowd are two of my favorite Petty songs, that said. 

[King Postwhore]

My #1 Petty album. Rick Rubin's production was stellar.   

[TAC]

It's weird that Kev goofs on Thin Lizzy. I have always found Phil Lynott and Tom Petty kindred spirits.

[King Postwhore]

Tell me more Tim! 

[TAC]

They are both storytellers, have a distinct delivery that you either get or you don't, and each have formidable songbooks.

[King Postwhore]

I would have never thought that but it seems so obvious! 

[TAC]

I have always felt that. Always. It's why I have enormous respect for Tom Petty even though I don't really listen to him.


Plus they both had drug influenced deaths.

[ReaperKK]

I love "Wildflowers". I was listening to the Broken Record podcast a few weeks ago and Rick Rubin said that Petty had enough material for a double album but culled it down to a single album. Rick still has the tracks but isn't going to release them obviously with respect to TP.

Tom Petty sits with Mark Knopfler as one of the best song writers out there IMO. While Dire Straits had more complex song arrangements, at the heart of it both Mark and Tom were amazing storytellers.

[Stadler]

I'm so indifferent to Tom Petty.  I like the earlier, janglier stuff, but once he became part of the Traveling Wilbury's it all became pretty bland to me.   

What I like from Tom Petty I really like, and what I don't I kind of don't pay much attention to.   

[pg1067]

Never heard it and, after looking at the track list on Wikipedia, I don't think I've ever heard any song from it.

[King Postwhore]

Never heard it and, after looking at the track list on Wikipedia, I don't think I've ever heard any song from it.

Were you buried alive for a year?  You Don't Know How It Feels was on radio, MTV for heavy rotation.

[Cool Chris]

Songs from Wildflowers and Full Moon Fever were on the radio a ton at the time, and I thought they were great. But as with his earlier material, there was enough on the radio that I liked and heard often enough I never cared to or bothered to buy anything of his. I liked the hits but not enough to delve any deeper or call myself a true fan.

That's a good album, too, but I feel that Wildflowers has better (and more) deep cuts than Full Moon Fever.  Runnin' Down a Dream...

Runnin' Down a Dream was on the radio all the time here.

[pg1067]

Never heard it and, after looking at the track list on Wikipedia, I don't think I've ever heard any song from it.

Were you buried alive for a year?  You Don't Know How It Feels was on radio, MTV for heavy rotation.

It's possible that I've heard it, but the name doesn't ring any bells.  According to Wikipedia, the album came out in November 1994.  By that time, I wasn't watching MTV because it never played anything I wanted to hear (I think the last thing I watched on MTV was the Boston season of The Real World, and that was a complete aberration and the only season of that show I watched).  And I definitely was not listening to any radio station that would have played Tom Petty.

P.S.  I youtubed it and shut it down after about 10 seconds of the whiny harmonica intro.  I'm fairly confident that, if heard that back in the day on MTV/VH1 or on the radio, I'd have quickly changed the station.

[King Postwhore]

That I do get.  Not your style but you couldn't avoid that song back then.  They even has a neutered version of the song with the lyrics changed.

[hefdaddy42]

*shrugs* it was OK.

I always liked Petty's hits, and never cared for any deep cuts I ever heard. 

[Cool Chris]

Yeah that song and Free Falling and Learning to Fly had to be on the radio once an hour it seemed.

[TAC]

Speaking of Free Falling, at work I hear some lame ass cover version of it all the time. It's sung really slow and the whole thing is puke inducing. Has anyone else heard this before? No idea who it is, but it fucking blows! Talk about killing a song. Whoever is singing sucks.

[pg1067]

Speaking of Free Falling, at work I hear some lame ass cover version of it all the time. It's sung really slow and the whole thing is puke inducing. Has anyone else heard this before? No idea who it is, but it fucking blows! Talk about killing a song. Whoever is singing sucks.

Aside from live covers (by, e.g., Kesha, Coldplay and Fleetwood Mac), Wikipedia lists studio covers by the likes of Matthew Sweet/Susanna Hoffs, Katey Sagal, Tony Hadley (apparently a member of Spandau Ballet) and Stevie Nicks.

BTW, I was still watching MTV when Free Fallin' came out.

[Cool Chris]

Wow! from those options, Kesha, Coldplay, Katey Segal, and Stevie Nicks could all fall under "Whoever is singing sucks."

[Stadler]

Katey Sagal (Mrs. Peg Bundy, Ms. Gemma Teller Morrow) sang backup on Gene Simmons' first solo album. 

[KevShmev]

Never heard it and, after looking at the track list on Wikipedia, I don't think I've ever heard any song from it.

Were you buried alive for a year?  You Don't Know How It Feels was on radio, MTV for heavy rotation.

 

[Zook]

As a wee lad, I was a huge Full Moon Fever fan. I bought Wildflowers on cassette thinking it was going to be just as great, but I was very disappointed. I tried listening to it again some odd years ago, but aside from the singles, my opinion was the same.

[ReaperKK]

Speaking of Free Falling, at work I hear some lame ass cover version of it all the time. It's sung really slow and the whole thing is puke inducing. Has anyone else heard this before? No idea who it is, but it fucking blows! Talk about killing a song. Whoever is singing sucks.

Is it the John Mayer cover?

[TAC]

I’m not sure. All I know is it’s awful.

[KevShmev]

Free Fallin' was never a song I liked that much.   It was played to death, so I know it well, but I have never gone out of my way to listen to it.  Probably my least favorite of the videos MTV played of his in the 80's.

[HOF]

I came here to point out how great It’s Good to be King is. The piano and strings on the outro wreck me every time.

I do think of Wildflowers as a great album. It’s not one I seek out to listen to really, but when bits of it turn up on shuffle I always enjoy it. It has a stretch of songs in the middle of it that is pretty much filler, but there are still at least 10 great songs on it. It’s the only thing I own by Tom Petty, and might always be as I’ve never really been interested in his music otherwise.

[wolfking]

How great is the Tom Petty album "Wildflowers"? 

I don't know.

[Fritzinger]

I always played the well-known Tom Petty songs in a cover band and I haaaated playing them. Mostly 4 chords, 4/4 mid tempo... and anooother repetition of the chorus... "learning to fly!" - and now everybody! - "learning to flyyyyhyyyy".. ugh, I almost fell asleep. That's why I never even listened to one Tom Petty album. Maybe if you say Wildflowers is so good, I should check it out though.

[Indiscipline]

EDIT: nevermind

[KevShmev]

I came here to point out how great It’s Good to be King is. The piano and strings on the outro wreck me every time.

I do think of Wildflowers as a great album. It’s not one I seek out to listen to really, but when bits of it turn up on shuffle I always enjoy it. It has a stretch of songs in the middle of it that is pretty much filler, but there are still at least 10 great songs on it. It’s the only thing I own by Tom Petty, and might always be as I’ve never really been interested in his music otherwise.

Quality bump.

How great is the Tom Petty album "Wildflowers"? 

I don't know.

Listen and find out, and then report back, please. 

[ReaperKK]

I was listening to Broken Record Podcast a while back and Rick Rubin mentioned that Tom had a whole other record to go with Wildflowers but they ended up  cutting it down to one disc. He ended up playing a song for the other host off mic and just hearing the hosts reaction made me really wish we got to hear that second disk of music.