Tom Petty turned a side project into his greatest success with this laid back lunar launch party. After seven albums with the Heartbreakers, Petty decided to record a solo album and began a fruitful period of his career. He would reveal: "It was Thanksgiving Day, 1987, when the seeds of 'Full Moon Fever' and the Wilburys were planted. I wanted to play baseball real bad that day, but I didn't have a mitt so I drove to the Thrifty Drug store because that was the only place open that I thought might have mitts. I was at the red light just before the Thrifty and I looked over and saw Jeff (Lynne). I had just met him a few weeks earlier in London and I waved for him to pull over. It turned out that he was living not far up the road from me so we exchanged numbers. He was working on the Brian Wilson record at the time so I didn't hear from him for about a month and then he started coming over. The first day I played a song for him that I had written called "Yer So Bad." He said he liked it, but how about if I tried a B minor here, and it instantly improved the song. We finished that song the first day and the next day we wrote "Free Falling." Most of the Heartbreakers were spread all over the country at the time so I grabbed Phil Jones, who plays percussion on some of the Heartbreakers records, and me, him and Jeff went to Campbell's garage studio and made demos of these new songs. When I heard them, I thought, "Hey, these sound like a record." Hmmm. Why not release them as a solo album? And that was that ... I just got in there with Jeff [Lynne] and [Heartbreaker guitarist] Mike Campbell. We had a basic band of us three and this drummer [Phil Jones]. I didn't want to call all my friends and have this long list of famous people. It's always tempting to do that. But I just wanted this little band. Starting around January of '88, we worked about three months, then stopped and did the Wilburys for awhile. When the Wilburys were done, we came back and did four more tracks, then pieced it all together...[The brighter, less abrasive feel] wasn't a real conscious thing. I think it was just a reaction to this being a solo record as opposed to being in the band, which is a nastier environment. So it's sort of like I'm out on leave from the penitentiary. [laughs] I didn't really mean that. These were all just songs I wanted to write real bad and I didn't do a a lot of looking back. I just went straight ahead until I got stuck. These were a few I pulled out, a little bit later. That was because I had the luxury of taking a break to do the Wilburys. It let me live with the album and decide if I wanted to write other songs with this mood or that mood...I wanted this album to have a sense of humor. But I wanted it to be where the humor illuminated some important things. That was the idea... We'd do a track, then on the next day we'd spend writing one. He'd come over to my house and we'd sit there and write. If it took us two days, it took us two days. We just kept doing it that way. A lot of the songs were worked out between the two of us, sitting on a couch. Like, I might have a lot of an idea, then he'd show up and we'd just start working. This has been a very prolific time for me. It's fairly magical, in a way. I feel kind of revitalized, musically. There's a lot of music going in my head now and it's been an inspiration to have so much input from a lot of different artists, not only the Heartbreakers. In our little world here [in Southern California], it's funny, but I've never seen a period like this where there are so many people trading ideas and so open to it. 'Cause [the Heartbreakers] used to be awful about that. We didn't let anybody into our sessions. If you weren't in the Heartbreakers, you didn't come in. it was a very closed club. We lived like that. And I don't really want to live like that anymore."
'Full Moon Fever' became an even bigger success than 'The Travelling Wilburys', going to number thirteen in Australia, eight in Germany and the UK, five in New Zealand, three in the US, and number two in Sweden and Norway.
http://www.tompetty.com/
"Free Fallin'" became the biggest single of his career, going to number seven on the US pop chart, five in Canada, four in New Zealand, and number one on the US hot mainstream rock tracks chart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lWJXDG2i0A
"Runnin' Down a Dream" hit number twenty-three on the US pop chart and number one on the US hot mainstream rock tracks chart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1D3a5eDJIs
"I Won't Back Down" made it to number twelve on the US pop chart and number one on the US hot mainstream rock tracks chart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvlTJrNJ5lA
"Yer So Bad"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdRViFCvvUo
'Full Moon Fever'
full album:
All songs written by Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne, except as indicated.
01."Free Fallin'" – 4:14
02."I Won't Back Down" – 2:56
03."Love Is a Long Road" (Mike Campbell, Petty) – 4:06
04."A Face in the Crowd" – 3:58
05."Runnin' Down a Dream" (Campbell, Lynne, Petty) – 4:23
06."I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better" (Gene Clark) – 2:47
07."Yer So Bad" – 3:05
08."Depending on You" (Petty) – 2:47
09."The Apartment Song" (Petty) – 2:31
10."Alright for Now" (Petty) – 2:00
11."A Mind with a Heart of Its Own" – 3:29
12."Zombie Zoo" – 2:56
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