Tom Petty: Damn the Torpedoes [GEFFEN]

Why you'll love it

This remastered Geffen/UMe pressing was made in Canada. The album sat at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 for seven weeks, went triple platinum, and gave the band two Top 15 hits in "Don't Do Me Like That" and "Refugee."

This edition

• Remastered
• Pressed in Canada

About the album

The title borrows Admiral David Farragut's famous order, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead," and that's pretty much how Tom Petty went at his third album. New co-producer Jimmy Iovine pushed the Heartbreakers through sessions at Sound City in Van Nuys and Cherokee in Hollywood, and the sound that came out was bigger, punchier and tighter than anything they'd done.

Mike Campbell co-wrote the two openers, the snarling "Refugee" and the swooning "Here Comes My Girl," with its spoken verses and soaring chorus. "Even the Losers" is one of Petty's great underdog anthems, "Century City" rocks out on the LA sprawl, and "Don't Do Me Like That" is a perfect, sharp little pop song. Benmont Tench's keyboards and Stan Lynch's drums keep the whole thing driving. Petty and Iovine produced it together. Petty wrote or co-wrote all nine songs.

Rolling Stone placed it at No. 231 on its 2020 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Pink Floyd's The Wall kept it off the top spot, and Petty later said he loved Pink Floyd but hated them that year, which seems entirely fair.

Also at Kops: more Tom Petty on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Geffen / UMe (cat# B0024286-01), a reissue of the 1979 album.