The chart hit Tom Petty almost gave away: “It sounds like J Geils to me”
Not every song an artist writes is destined to be performed by themselves. Even though a songwriter might slave away trying to find the exact right melody to put together with the right set of chords, it’s just as easy to find a singer better equipped to deliver the song. Although Tom Petty was already a songwriting genius by the late 1970s, he needed all the help he could get on Damn the Torpedoes.
It was the album which confirmed the band as stars because of their meticulous musicianship. The record’s culture and cultivation was a long and arduous process, one which gathered up Petty a reputation for perfection. It would seem his pursuit of said perfection was worthwhile, as across songs like ‘Here Comes My Girl’, ‘Even the Losers’, ‘Refugee’, and so many others, Petty provides his most crystal-clear vision of what rock should sound like. But it was a tough time for Petty.
Stuck with a lawsuit that he had to deal with from his label, Petty spent most of his days slaving away, trying to craft what would become his masterpiece. Although he may have been willing to push his craft forward, producer Jimmy Iovine was shell-shocked by the number of great songs on display, saying in Runnin’ Down a Dream, “I remember thinking this was going to be an incredible project. He played me ‘Refugee’ and ‘Here Comes My Girl’ and I said ‘You don’t need any more songs’. I’ve never said that since”.
Coming from a roots-infused background than Iovine’s previous work, Petty assembled songs about underdogs, from the man who is too proud to put himself down on ‘Even the Losers’ to people that live on the wrong side of the tracks like ‘Refugee’. In the midst of writing songs, Iovine pointed out one track that almost slipped through their fingers.
Long before the Heartbreakers got together, Petty was working on songs in California when the material came into his head. After booking a small studio, he put a piano part to the melody, which would become ‘Don’t Do Me Like That’. Though it had the makings of a smash hit, Petty never thought it was suited for The Heartbreakers.
According to Iovine, Petty envisioned the song as something that The J. Geils Band would go for. Upon hearing it, Iovine went back to Petty and told him to finish it off with the band, arguing in Classic Albums, “He told me ‘it sounds like J Geils to me’ and I said ‘it sounds like a hit to me’”. Compared to the long hours the band spent rehearsing tracks like ‘Here Comes My Girl’, ‘Don’t Do Me Like That’ was knocked out in just a handful of takes before landing on the final version.
But it nearly landed Petty one of his best chart positions. Taking a spot in the top ten on the Billboard chart, the track is one of Petty’s best-selling singles. ‘Free Fallin” is perhaps the only single release that can come close to matching it on sales alone, but it could have been so different as Petty could well have given it away.
Even though Petty saved a lot of his best material for himself, his days as a songwriter for other artists were just around the corner, giving up the song ‘Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around’ to Stevie Nicks for her debut album. Then again, Petty’s judgment could get the better of him now and again.
When working on the album Southern Accents, Petty was focusing so much on his stockpile of songs that he didn’t pay any mind to a Mike Campbell original with a moody backbeat. Since Petty wasn’t going for it, Campbell eventually gave it to Don Henley, who would rework the final track into the ‘80s classic ‘Boys of Summer’.
Regardless of who sang the song, Petty created one of the major calling cards for his sound, marrying his rock and roll brand of boogie with a particular soul element that was hard to come by in most heartland rockers of the time. Petty may have more good songs for one person, but he was probably thankful that Iovine could see through the cracks and pick out this musical diamond.
