From Bob Dylan to George Harrison: Five songs that Tom Petty wrote for other artists
The list of hit records that Tom Petty wrote is vast landscape of creativity, to say the very least. In terms of his work with The Heartbreakers, we saw hugely popular singles with the likes of ‘American Girl’, ‘Don’t Do Me Like That’, and ‘Learning to Fly’, while Petty’s solo career also featured some of his big hitters, including ‘I Won’t Back Down’, ‘Free Fallin’ and ‘You Don’t Know How It Feels’.
Interestingly, given Petty’s crazy talent for penning chart-topping tracks, even aside from his own work, he had written several songs for other prominent musicians. Petty, who died in 2017 from an accidental overdose, was just one of those writers who could effortlessly write an anthem, echoing, in the eternal words of The Dandy Warhols’ Courtney Taylor-Taylor, “I sneeze, and hits come out”. Over the years, Petty wrote several outstanding songs for other people, including one for one of the Fleetwood Mac vocalists.
While Stevie Nicks was working on her debut solo album at the beginning of the 1980s, she had been adamant about having Tom Petty onboard. Petty initially wrote ‘Insider’ for Nicks, but on completion of the track, he decided to keep it for himself. Petty’s producer Jimmy Iovine suggested that Nicks use ‘Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around’, which Petty had written with Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell. Nicks was more than happy to oblige and took it for herself.
Remarkably, Petty also wrote a tune for one of the best songwriters of all time, his future Traveling Wilburys bandmate, Bob Dylan. Dylan’s 1986 album Knocked Out Loaded featured two Kris Kristofferson covers, ‘They Killed Him’ and ‘Brownsville Girl’, but it also saw the Dylan/Petty collab track ‘Got My Mind Made Up’, and the duo would perform the song together many times over the coming years.
Dylan was not the only Traveling Wilburys bandmate that Petty would write for, though, and, as you will find from the remainder of this article, he actually wrote for them all. Just after helping Dylan out, Petty wrote ‘Cheer Down’ with The Beatles’ George Harrison. The track was initially offered to Eric Clapton but later appeared on the soundtrack for Lethal Weapon 2.
Continuing to assist his Wilburys, Roy Orbison enlisted Petty to help him out with ‘You Got It’, which was eventually released on the legendary singer’s 1989 posthumously released album Mystery Girl. Orbison had died the year before, just after the supergroup released their debut album Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1.
Rounding off his great songwriting in terms of offering his talents to his band members, Petty wrote ‘Blown Away’ with ELO’s Jeff Lynne. Lynne had co-produced Petty’s Full Moon Fever solo album and The Heartbreakers’ 1991 record Into the Great Wide Open. Between those LPs, Petty wrote ‘Blown Away’ with Lynne, which arrived on his own solo album Armchair Theatre.
Five songs Tom Petty wrote for other people:
- ‘Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around’ – Stevie Nicks
- ‘Got My Mind Made Up’ – Bob Dylan
- ‘Cheer Down’ – George Harrison
- ‘You Got It’ – Roy Orbison
- ‘Blown Away’ – Jeff Lynne
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