Post by erik on Apr 8, 2023 19:13:11 GMT -5
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are in this week's Pop Music Hits Spotlight with a classic rock favorite.
DON’T DO ME LIKE THAT (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers; Backstreet; 1979)—Updating much of the jangly twelve-string electric guitar sounds of The Byrds from the 1960’s L.A. folk-rock movement, as well as having vocals that sound a lot like the Byrds and their lead singer Roger McGiinn, Florida émigré Tom Petty and his band The Heartbreakers became known for updating the sounds of the past with elements of the power-pop and new-wave movements that were flourishing in Los Angeles at the end of the 1970’s. Petty and his band had begun making minor inroads as early as 1976 with “American Girl”; and in early 1978, they broke onto the Top 40 with “Breakdown”, a fan favorite that landed on the soundtrack to the 1978 cult film F.M., a 2-LP collection that sold 1.5 million copies (though the film itself was only a moderate box office hit). Petty really broke through in a big way at the end of 1979 with their third album d**n The Torpedoes, which was produced by Jimmy Iovine. The first song off of that album was the soon-to-be FM classic rock favorite “Don’t Do Me Like That”. Petty had written this song as far back as 1974 while leading the Hearbtreakers’ immediate predecessor band Mudcrutch, and they had demoed that song, hoping that the J. Geils Band would take the song up. But when that fell through, Iovine convinced Petty and the Heartbreakers to put the song on record, sensing that it had extreme hit potential. Iovine’s instincts turned out to be true, as, when “Don’t Do Me Like That”, was released in mid-November 1979, it made a steady rise up the Billboard Hot 100. It peaked at #10 on the chart for the week ending February 2, 1980, leading to many more hits for the band over the next twelve years. Petty and his band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, the very first years they were eligible; and they continued to record on and off for the next fifteen years, including an appearance at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on September 25, 2017. Sadly, that Hollywood Bowl performance would be their last, as, only one week later, on October 2nd, Petty died of a heart attack just eighteen days short of what would have been his 67th birthday
DON’T DO ME LIKE THAT (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers; Backstreet; 1979)—Updating much of the jangly twelve-string electric guitar sounds of The Byrds from the 1960’s L.A. folk-rock movement, as well as having vocals that sound a lot like the Byrds and their lead singer Roger McGiinn, Florida émigré Tom Petty and his band The Heartbreakers became known for updating the sounds of the past with elements of the power-pop and new-wave movements that were flourishing in Los Angeles at the end of the 1970’s. Petty and his band had begun making minor inroads as early as 1976 with “American Girl”; and in early 1978, they broke onto the Top 40 with “Breakdown”, a fan favorite that landed on the soundtrack to the 1978 cult film F.M., a 2-LP collection that sold 1.5 million copies (though the film itself was only a moderate box office hit). Petty really broke through in a big way at the end of 1979 with their third album d**n The Torpedoes, which was produced by Jimmy Iovine. The first song off of that album was the soon-to-be FM classic rock favorite “Don’t Do Me Like That”. Petty had written this song as far back as 1974 while leading the Hearbtreakers’ immediate predecessor band Mudcrutch, and they had demoed that song, hoping that the J. Geils Band would take the song up. But when that fell through, Iovine convinced Petty and the Heartbreakers to put the song on record, sensing that it had extreme hit potential. Iovine’s instincts turned out to be true, as, when “Don’t Do Me Like That”, was released in mid-November 1979, it made a steady rise up the Billboard Hot 100. It peaked at #10 on the chart for the week ending February 2, 1980, leading to many more hits for the band over the next twelve years. Petty and his band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, the very first years they were eligible; and they continued to record on and off for the next fifteen years, including an appearance at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on September 25, 2017. Sadly, that Hollywood Bowl performance would be their last, as, only one week later, on October 2nd, Petty died of a heart attack just eighteen days short of what would have been his 67th birthday