Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (180g) [GEFFEN]

Why you'll love it

This 180g pressing, made in Germany, comes with an insert of photos and credits. The album went gold, and its two singles, "Breakdown" and "American Girl," are still the songs most people reach for when they think of Tom Petty.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Insert with photos and credits
• Pressed in Germany

About the album

Tom Petty's first album took the scenic route to success. It came out on Shelter Records in November 1976, and Britain caught on first. The band toured there hard and watched the record climb to No. 24, and once the reviews piled up back home, America followed, sending it onto the Billboard 200 a year later.

Denny Cordell produced it at Shelter Studio in Hollywood, and the band (Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, Ron Blair and Stan Lynch alongside Petty) sounds lean and sure of itself. "Breakdown" is all slow-burning menace, "Anything That's Rock 'N' Roll" became a UK hit, "Hometown Blues" and "Fooled Again (I Don't Like It)" crackle with garage energy, and "American Girl" closes the record on a jangling high. Ten songs, and not an ounce of fat on any of them.

It later turned up in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, a fair reward for a debut that had to cross an ocean twice. We've had special orders take that long, though ours rarely end up in a book.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On Shelter / Geffen, a reissue of the 1976 album.