Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers- Into the Great Wide Open 35th Anniversary

If Tom Petty’s 1989 “songs from the garage” wildly successful solo album Full Moon Fever is seen as a career “halftime score”, then his 1991 Into the Great Wide Open effort with the full Heartbreakers band has to be viewed as the third quarter kickoff to an eventual body of work as one of the greatest American songwriters of our time.

Tom Petty’s new-found confidence from Full Moon Fever‘s universal acclaim, both critically and commercially, is evident from the start on Into the Great Wide Open thirty-five years ago with “Learning to Fly”. And the straightforward arrangements and production by producer Jeff Lynne (ex-Electric Light Orchestra bandleader & future Traveling Wilbury with Petty) was another phase of Full Moon Fever carried over in songs “All or Nothing”, “Dark of the Sun”, the breezy “Into the Great Wide Open”, and furious knee-knockin’ rockabilly rave ups “Makin’ Some Noise” and “Out in the Cold”.

Don’t miss this cherished conversation recorded in Tom Petty’s home, rebuilt from the ashes of an arsonist’s attack, here In the Studio the week of June 29. -Redbeard