The artist Tom Petty thought shamelessly ripped him off
It’s not uncommon for musicians to face plagiarism lawsuits at some point in their careers. Despite their efforts to craft original sounds, with only 12 notes to work with, similarities between compositions can arise, leading to disputes. While Tom Petty typically approached such situations with understanding, he couldn’t overlook Elvis Costello allegedly borrowing one of his major hits from a lesser-known track in his catalogue.
Then again, Petty was never known to come down too hard on anyone who admitted to stealing his work. While there were cases to be had for The Strokes ripping off ‘American Girl’ for ‘Last Nite’, Petty never thought that any legal action was necessary, finding it pretty funny that the band would have the guts to admit that they ripped him off.
When Petty first started, though, he still had something to prove. After coming out of his initial band Mudcrutch, Petty was determined to make the kind of rootsy rock and roll that he loved as a kid, combining his love of electric blues and southern rock with the sounds of the British invasion.
After experiencing unexpected success with his debut album in the UK, Tom Petty faced a harsh reality check back in the US. Despite the acclaim overseas, the band found themselves struggling to make ends meet, particularly when recording their sophomore album, You’re Gonna Get It.
After trying the best they could to make a nervy version of their first record, Petty was still not satisfied, thinking that they never recorded it right. Whatever they didn’t do right, it was still an improvement over the first record, giving the band a modest hit on the radio once the song ‘Listen to Her Heart’ started tearing up the charts.
As Petty was finding his feet on the touring circuit, though, another genre was starting to emerge as well: new wave. While Petty fought tooth and nail not to be associated with the latest offshoot of rock and roll, he did eventually go out on tour with pub rocker Elvis Costello, having the same kind of authentic approach to rock and roll.
Once Petty heard Costello blow up with ‘Radio Radio’, he was a bit suspicious of where he got the ending of the song, telling Paul Zollo, “It didn’t go quite clean with us and Elvis Costello. [He] stole the ending of [‘Listen to Her Heart’], and he admits it. He remembered it. He watched us do the ending, and he put it on the song he just wrote called ‘Radio Radio’. If you listen, it’s the same ending”.
Considering how many great songs both Petty and Costello could write on their own, though, this was never a case of Costello covering up for his material. Since Costello was still coming out around the golden age of punk, this was practically just another cheeky way of trying to pinch elements of his peers.
Petty didn’t have time to focus on arguments about who wrote what ending to which song first. He was about to go to war with his label ahead of Damn the Torpedoes, and he was going to make sure that nothing got in between him and the rights to his songs.
