Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

Tom Petty & The Heart Breakers | Format: MP3 Music

Product Details

• Original Release Date: July 2, 1991
• Release Date: July 2, 1991
• Label: Rhino/Warner Bros.
• Copyright: 1976 Gone Gator Records
• Record Company Required Metadata: Music file metadata contains unique purchase identifier. Learn more.
• Total Length: 30:52
• Genres:
  • Pop
• ASIN: B001L28KHG
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,986 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars This Is Where It All Began May 13, 2002

By R. Mix VINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

It took about a year from this album's November, 1976 release for it to reach me, but when it did, it brought joy. At the time, very little sounded like it, and I loved it.

From the moody "Luna" to the flat-out, percolating "Rockin' Around (With You)" to the menacing "Fooled Again (I Don't Like It)" to the magnificent, chugging "Strangered In The Night" to the clipped, all-amped-up-with-nowhere-to-go energy that pervades "Anything That's Rock 'N' Roll", this album was almost too good, too developed, too fully-realized to be a debut. But it was.

And twenty-five years on, it still sounds fresh. Potent. Invigorating. And thankfully, it remains (with the possible exception of "American Girl" or "Breakdown") untouched by classic rock radio.

As Bill Flanagan notes in his wonderful essay, "The band went on to make lots of records, some better than this." But very few. Front to back, Tom Petty eclipsed this album perhaps two or three times in his Hall of Fame career.

I'm happy to report that the remastering is a vast improvement over the original's wooden sound, which was done on the cheap for a dying record company. But given that 'Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' is barely thirty minutes long, I would've liked a demo or two, or some early live tracks added to this remastered edition.

If memory serves, ABC/Shelter released an "official" bootleg of an early Petty show from the Paradise in Boston about this time, and it was hot stuff. Where are those tracks?

But the sheer joy of the music contained herein render those complaints minor at best. This album has lost nothing in the quarter-century since its release.

I only hope I age this well.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Sky's the Limit - Brilliant Debut April 23, 1998

By M.P. Black ([e-mail])

Format:Audio CD

T.P. and the Heartbreakers have had a turbulent career to say the least, from struggles with pricing to internal conflict and most recently Petty's separation from his wife. At the end of the day, however, these Floridians gone L.A. know that it's about the music. Just listen to this album, their debut. Your classic rock collection is a disgrace without "American Girl", not to mention "Breakdown". But Petty's famous Byrds sound and blues tinged rock isn't all that the Heratbreakers offer. Everything from punk ("Anything That's Rock n' Roll") to country ("Mystery Man") shines. The Heartbreakers not only have an affinity for any type of music, but everything seems so well-placed on this album. You could hardly accuse them of a diffuse album. It's coherent and from the first drum rythms of "Rockin' Around" (garage rock if there ever was such a thing) to the Byrdisms of "American Girl", Petty and the Heartbreakers deliver a classic and an opening to a career that still flourishes today.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Anything That's Rock 'n Roll is Right! November 11, 2000

By Douglas Altenweg

Format:Audio CD

Tom Petty has always always been classified as a fun rocker. While his later material would suggest otherwise, after listening to this album over 50 times its easy to see why Petty gets classified that way. Running just over 30 minutes, this debut album has it all. The ten tracks are all so catchy that it is irresistible, but they have enough depth that you feel this lightweight album has personal impact. Every song is great, simple, and straight to the point. At first listen you think that you could write them, but after each subsequent play you begin to see otherwise. The only weak song is "Fooled Again (I Don't Like It)" because the content doesn't flow with what the other nine tracks are about. But the classics "American Girl" and "Breakdown" are featured here, along with great tunes like "The Wild One, Forever", "Anything That's Rock 'n Roll", and my personal favorite - "Mystery Man". Not the first Tom Petty album to buy, but definitely one to own.