Maps of Music

Wildflowers (1994)

Where the lyrics of Wildflowers take you, and where it was really made.

Tom Petty planned Wildflowers as a 25-song double album, but the label cut it to 15 tracks, and the band's drummer was fired just before release.

Key places

Recorded at Ocean Way Recording (1994)

Recording site Ocean Way Recording — The album was recorded in Los Angeles at Ocean Way Recording and Sound City Studios, according to the release notes. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recorded at Sound City Studios (1994)

Recording site Sound City Studios — Sound City Studios is listed as a recording location for the album in the release credits on Discogs. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Wildflowers: second solo studio album by Tom Petty
• Released November 1, 1994, by Warner Bros. Records
• Credited to Petty alone, not to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
• First album released by Petty after signing with Warner Bros.
• First of three albums Petty produced with Rick Rubin
• Certified 3× platinum in the United States by the RIAA

Background

• Petty had recorded for Warner Bros. earlier as part of the Traveling Wilburys
• The original plan was a double album of 25 songs
• Lenny Waronker of Warner Bros. Records felt the album was too long, so it was cut to 15 tracks
• Of the ten songs left out, "Leave Virginia Alone" was given to Rod Stewart for his album A Spanner in the Works (1995)
• Four of the left-out songs appeared in modified form on the She's the One soundtrack (1996)
• All ten left-out songs in original form were released in the 2020 edition Wildflowers & All the Rest

Recording

• The Heartbreakers are featured heavily, except drummer Stan Lynch
• Petty auditioned numerous drummers and chose Steve Ferrone
• Petty fired Lynch from the Heartbreakers just before the album's release
• Ferrone officially joined the touring band the following year
• Recorded in Los Angeles at Sound City & Ocean Way Recording
• Mixed at Andora Studios and mastered at Precision Mastering
• Producers include Rick Rubin, Tom Petty, and Mike Campbell

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com · www.discogs.com

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Early life

• Thomas Earl Petty was born October 20, 1950, in Gainesville, Florida.
• He grew up in the Northeast Gainesville Residential District, known locally as the Duckpond.
• His interest in rock and roll began at age ten, when he met Elvis Presley on the set of Follow That Dream.
• After seeing the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, he decided he wanted to be in a band.

Formation

• He formed the Epics, which later evolved into Mudcrutch.
• Their only single, "Depot Street" (1975, Shelter Records), failed to chart.
• Petty, Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, Ron Blair and Stan Lynch formed the first lineup of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Members

• Core lineup: Petty, Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, Ron Blair (replaced by Howie Epstein in 1982), Stan Lynch.
• Lynch's last recorded performance with the band was for the Greatest Hits package.

Career

• Hits with the Heartbreakers include "American Girl", "Don't Do Me Like That", "Refugee", "The Waiting", "Don't Come Around Here No More" and "Learning to Fly".
• Solo hits include "I Won't Back Down", "Free Fallin'" and "You Don't Know How It Feels".
• In 1988 he was a founding member of the Traveling Wilburys with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne.
• The Heartbreakers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.
• He sold more than 80 million records worldwide.
• He died October 2, 2017, of an accidental prescription drug overdose.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• USA Today's Edna Gundersen: Petty explored middle-age reality, in contrast to the adolescent fantasies of other rockers
• The Guardian's Caroline Sullivan: misery suited Petty, and the album held some of the best work of his career
• Rolling Stone's Elysa Gardner: less sonically adventurous and less instantly accessible than Southern Accents and Full Moon Fever, but its passion and maturity grow with each listen
• NME's Emma Forrest: an album that helps sort out thoughts is as significant as a furious youth anthem
• Chicago Tribune's Greg Kot: the subtle, painterly sound showed Petty moving further into musical ambiguity
• Los Angeles Times' Chris Willman: inconsistent, but with a subtle resonance that makes the lack of instant anthems easy to forgive
• Entertainment Weekly's David Browne: Petty had failed to progress musically or lyrically
• Robert Christgau: Petty sounded wilted and torpid

Reappraisal

• AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine, in a retrospective review: casual gait and extended length set it apart in Petty's discography
• Pitchfork's Sam Sodomsky: Petty's best solo album, with elegantly spare, personal, and intuitive songs

Records

• "You Don't Know How It Feels" reached No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Album Rock Tracks chart for one week
• "You Wreck Me", "It's Good to Be King", and "A Higher Place" reached Nos. 2, 6, and 12 on the Mainstream Rock chart
• The title track charted at No. 16 on the Billboard Hot Rock Songs chart and No. 3 on the Billboard Lyric Find
• Rolling Stone ranked it 12th among the best albums of the 1990s and 214th on its 2020 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
• Guitar World placed it at No. 49 in its Superunknown list
• Certified 3× platinum in the United States by the RIAA

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The B-side "Girl on LSD" was released in 1994 on the "You Don't Know How It Feels" single.
• The outtake "Lonesome Dave," recorded July 23, 1993, was released in 2018 on Petty's posthumous box set An American Treasure.
• The 2021 documentary Tom Petty: Somewhere You Feel Free – The Making of Wildflowers, directed by Mary Wharton, was released on YouTube in November 2021.
• The 2020 book Somewhere You Feel Free: Tom Petty and Los Angeles takes its title from a lyric in the album's title song.
• In April 2015, when Petty's back catalog came out in high-resolution audio, this album was one of only two not included in the series, though a hi-res version was on Pono Music.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

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