Tom Petty wanted to release a “worst of” album
Every band seems to be tempting fate the minute that they release a best-of collection. Even though tons of bands have managed to make a timestamp for their best material, there are only so many times that people can put out a catch-all for their albums and not look like they are creatively spent. While Tom Petty never had to worry about losing his momentum throughout his career, he felt that it might have been a good idea for him to play the ‘greatest hits’ game in reverse.
Because looking through Petty’s discography, there are hardly any albums that could be considered outright duds. There might be the occasional album that doesn’t work, but even on some of the forgettable records, there are still a handful of tunes that stick out as something worth revisiting rather than the kind of album that the fans can point and laugh at, like The Clash’s Cut the Crap or Metallica’s St Anger.
And it’s not like Petty didn’t stand his ground when his label convinced him to put out a Greatest Hits album. He had spent years trying to get away from MCA after they tried to screw him over on Damn the Torpedoes, and since they wanted him to record two new songs for the record, he felt that he was cheapening the fans by writing a “hit” that had never even been released yet. But when that demo turned into ‘Mary Jane’s Last Dance’, Petty eventually conceded and said that it was a good move.
It’s not like Petty holds back in terms of the records that he dislikes, though. He had said numerous times that a record like Echo was too emotionally raw for him to return to it too much, and even after jamming with Bob Dylan, he felt that the follow-up Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough) spoke for itself judging by how frustrated he was during the recording.
As far back as Long After Dark, though, Petty was already mocking the bands that tended to put out greatest hits albums too much. Despite Eagles and Elton John turning in best-ofs that became the best-selling albums of all time, Petty wanted to screw with his audience and put out a record that had nothing but the outtakes that weren’t good enough.
Then again, it’s not like Petty was looking to make a cheap record that the fans would hate, either, saying, “Someday I’d like to release The Worst Of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers with the outtakes. They’re all good songs, but they didn’t fit moodwise. Personally, I don’t care what comes next when I’m listening to music.”
Though no album has come out with that moniker yet, the closest thing that we have to a ‘Worst of Tom Petty’ these days is probably Playback, a box set featuring everything that got left on the cutting room floor and different demos that they never fleshed out. Still, there are a few songs that were never released that deserved to be huge, whether it’s hearing Petty go full-on country on the song ‘Casa Dega’ or working with The Bangles to create one of the best heartland rock hits never made on ‘Waiting for Tonight’.
But even if those are considered the “worst” songs that Petty ever made, there are hardly any places where he completely strikes out. He was always looking to make music to have fun, and in that respect, it’s easy to appreciate something as gorgeous as ‘Southern Accents’ while still laughing along to ‘Girl on LSD’.
