‘Wooden Heart’: The song Tom Petty thought he sang better than Elvis Presley
There are only a handful of artists who can claim to have shaped the world of rock and roll like Elvis Presley did. From the first time he was pictured shaking his hips on television, people were both outraged and amazed by what Presley brought to the table, exuding sexuality while defining the genre. The future of rock was paying attention, especially a young kid named Tom Petty.
Before Presley made his big break, Petty was just looking to get into whatever trouble he could in his native Gainsville. Though he may not have had the best home life, Petty saw Presley in the flesh when his uncle worked on one of his movies. When the heartland rocker saw Presley up close, he went home a changed man, looking to buy everything that Presley had put out.
Although Petty liked playing guitar in front of huge crowds, it wasn’t until The Beatles came along that he had a clear vision of what he wanted to do. Outside of the major stars that had come before, the Fab Four’s singular mindset among friends was what Petty was looking for, forming his first band, Mudcrutch, before morphing into Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
As they played gigs up and down the US, they started to hone their craft as a great covers band with original material. While they could fill up entire shows with one classic after another like ‘American Girl’ and ‘Refugee’, the group had an interest in cutting loose whenever they took to the stage as well, creating their takes on tracks like The Byrds’ ‘So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star’ and the blues standard ‘Call Me the Breeze’.
When Petty helped compile songs for the box set Playback, though, there were more than a few covers scattered among the various odds and ends. While Petty had been known to draw from the well of Presley now and again, his take on ‘Wooden Heart’ was enough to trump ‘The King’s version in his mind.
Initially a deep cut from Presley’s career, Petty took the track to another place when performing with the Heartbreakers, telling Paul Zollo, “One of my favourite records that probably no one would ever think about is in the boxed set when we covered his song, ‘Wooden Heart’. I love our record of that. I think we did it better than Elvis. That’s saying a lot, but I think we did.”
Recorded during the sessions for the album Southern Accents, the song would become one of the many that ended up being scrapped after producer Jimmy Iovine decided that the group should pair down the project to one single album instead of a double album experience. When listening to Petty sing it, this was the kind of track that was more in tune with the vision he had in his head, crafting songs that were a love letter to the South rather than an eclectic mix of different musical pieces.
Looking back on the track, Petty remembered that the emotion behind the song was what made it sound that much better, explaining, “It was right from the heart. And when I hear that, I’m really touched by it, because it reminds me of being young and listening to those records.” Compared to the vast array of different sonic detours going on in Southern Accents, this is the one moment where the audience sees Petty as a little kid again, marvelling at the kind of songs that made him love music in the first place.
