In the latest episode of Malcom Gladwell and Rick Rubin's fantastic Broken Record podcast, Rubin shares the story behind Tom Petty's 1994 Wildflowers album. Rubin produced the album and went on to work on three other albums with Petty. The two year recording process leading up to the release of Wildflowers was a particularly fertile time for Petty and the songs were coming easy for him - Rubin says they eventually recorded 30 songs with the plan for Wildflowers to be a double album. It didn't happen. Due to pressure from Petty's label and space limitations on vinyl and CD, Wildflowers was released as a 15-song single album.
When Petty died in October 2017 he was finalizing plans to release a Wildflowers box set backed by a concert tour focused around the album. The box set, Wildflowers: All the Rest, may possibly come this year; it would seem to make sense with 2019 being the 25th anniversary of the original release. Petty's family and management have already mined the vaults for An American Treasure and another Greatest Hits collection so hopefully the Wildflowers project is next.
So what actually happened to all of those other songs that didn't make the final cut of Wildflowers? If we take Rubin's recollection of 30 songs as a guide, some internet detective work can help in ID'ing most of the rest. Four ended up on Songs And Music From The Motion Picture She's The One, another as the b-side to You Don't Know How It Feels, another was gifted to Rod Stewart for his 1995 album A Spanner In The Works, yet another was intended as part of the soundtrack to the film Entourage and yet one more was released on last year's An American Treasure.
In a 2016 Rolling Stone interview, Petty expanded on the Wildflower saga:
“I think I put four of the [Wildflowers outtakes] on the She’s The One soundtrack just to fill out the album,” says Tom Petty. “But they were very hastily mixed. Take ‘Climb That Hill.’ There’s a version of that on She’s The One, but the Wildflowers one I think is extremely better. I’m gonna put that out. ‘Hung Up And Overdue’ is another one we remixed and it turned into an epic. I had Carl Wilson [of the Beach Boys] and [Heartbreakers bassist] Howie Epstein singing quite a bit of harmony that didn’t come through on the original. Then again, there’s probably six songs that nobody has heard. There’s 11 or 12 [new] songs on the album. I think people are going to like it a lot. I like it a lot.”
Petty actually debuted three of the Wildflowers songs during an acoustic set at Neil Young's Bridge School concert in October 1994, less than a month before the original release date. It's a particularly tasty set and the last ever appearance Stan Lynch made behind the drum kit with the band before parting ways prior to the '95 tour.
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Bridge School Benefit Concert 1994
Lynch hadn't been invited to any of the Wildflowers sessions unlike the rest of the Heartbreakers so the writing was on the wall. When it came time to tour the album, Petty wanted Steve Ferrone, the drummer who had laid down most of the Wildflowers songs to join the band. Ferrone was definitely in but a scheduling conflict made it impossible to make the band's Saturday Night Live gig before kicking off their tour. As legend has it, Petty reached out to Dave Grohl to fill in and he delivered!
Dave Grohl joins the Heartbreakers for SNL
Here’s hoping we’ll see Petty’s fully imagined re-telling of Wildflowers later this year. In the meantime, welcome to this week’s Playlist. Please enjoy.
-Tim Tolbert
Wildflowers Redux (Tom Petty)
Listen Now: SPOTIFY
Wildflowers ** (orginal release)
You Don’t Know How It Feels **
Time To Move On **
You Wreck Me **
It’s Good To Be King **
Only A Broken Heart **
Honey Bee **
Don’t Fade On Me (Alternate Version, Take 19)
Don’t Fade On Me **
Hard On Me **
Cabin Down Below
To Find A Friend **
A Higher Place **
House In The Woods **
Crawling Back To You **
Wake Up Time (Alternate Version 1992)
Wake Up Time **
Leave Virginia Alone (Rod Stewart)
Hope You Never
California
Hung Up And Overdue
Climb That Hill
Supernatural Radio
U Get Me High
Lonesome Dave
Somewhere Under Heaven
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