{"id":1047429,"date":"2026-06-24T16:42:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T16:42:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1047429\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T16:42:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T16:42:26","slug":"tom-petty-vs-elvis-costello-who-was-the-real-king-of-new-wave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1047429\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Petty vs Elvis Costello: Who was the real king of new wave?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tom<\/p>\n

Credit: Far Out \/ Album Cover \/ Original Poster<\/p>\n

Wed 24 June 2026 1:00, UK <\/p>\n

From the 1990s onward, Tom Petty<\/a> and Elvis Costello settled into very similar roles as cynical but soft-hearted rock and roll ambassadors; respected middle-aged liaisons between the founders of the genre and the up-and-comers of the next generation. <\/p>\n

Grizzled, bearded, forever on tour, getting inducted or inducting other people into various halls of fame, bemoaning the state of the music industry; this was their life. Costello, now 71, is still very much in that mode, 33 albums into his career. Petty, of course, was gone too soon, laid to rest in 2017 at 66.<\/p>\n

Knowing what we know about the later chapters of their careers, the Wilburys and Burt Bacharachs and Diana Kralls and adult contemporariness of it all, it can be hard to remember how Petty and Costello were perceived when they broke on the scene as new wave newbs in the late 1970s. <\/p>\n

Despite looking almost like polar opposites of one another aesthetically, the dark-haired, bespectacled Londoner and the blond-maned, long-faced Floridian, Elvis and Tom, were both routinely tagged with the \u201cP\u201d word at first. Journalists were still trying to sort out whether the punk explosion of 1976 had been a one-off detonation or an ongoing thing. If Costello and Petty weren\u2019t quite raging punks in the Sex Pistols<\/a> mould, they were certainly sneering garage rockers of a sort; loud, cocky, up to something sneaky. <\/p>\n

Look at the shit-eating grin Petty is sporting on the album sleeve of the Heartbreakers\u2019 self-titled 1976 debut album, or Costello\u2019s tongue-in-cheek Buddy Holly pose on his own debut, My Aim Is True, a year later. Before you heard a lick of their music, seeing their faces on display at the local record shop would draw immediate curiosity. What did these two guys know about the future of rock music that you didn\u2019t? Turns out, quite a lot.<\/p>\n

Both frontmen wasted very little time establishing themselves as the most melodically skilled new songwriters on their respective sides of the Atlantic, although each found the UK more responsive to their early efforts than the USA. <\/p>\n

The reggae-inspired 1977 single \u2018Watching the Detectives\u2019 was Costello\u2019s first top 20 hit in his home country, but it was the earlier, initially overlooked single \u2018Alison\u2019 that wound up generating more attention, revealing Costello\u2019s depth as a romantic balladeer<\/a>; a bridge between The Clash and the singer\/songwriters of Laurel Canyon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Tom<\/a>Credit: Alamy<\/p>\n

Further reading: Features<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the exact same moment in time, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers\u2019 first-ever tour of the UK had generated major buzz around the band, whose first album had mostly flopped back in the States. \u2018Breakdown\u2019, \u2018Anything That\u2019s Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll\u2019, and \u2018American Girl\u2019 all became hits on the British charts. <\/p>\n

Suddenly grouped in with a new \u201cscene\u201d he didn\u2019t fully understand, a 26-year-old Petty looked around at the other new artists he was getting compared to and had to admit, he didn\u2019t mind the company.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were in London for the first or second time Elvis Costello ever played in front of an audience,\u201d Petty told Spin magazine in 1989. \u201cI thought, hmmm, ballsy name, and then he comes out, just him and a guitar, and he was great.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose were wonderful days,\u201d Petty added, \u201cthough we really took shit from both sides. To the punks, we were slow and wimpy, and to the mainstream crowd, we were wild and original.\u201d<\/p>\n

Costello and Petty immediately seemed to appreciate that they existed in that same in-between zone, and on December 2nd, 1977, their paths crossed on the same stage for the first time, as Costello, still just 23, opened for the Heartbreakers at a gig in Chicago.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was the only person I ever opened for during the first 25 years of my career,\u201d Costello recalled in 2017, shortly after Petty\u2019s death. \u201cI opened for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, me and the Attractions, the first time we went to Chicago\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe played the Riviera Theatre, and we barely filled it with the two bands\u2026 [Tom] was a terrific songwriter, terrific singer, great attitude.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Elvis was inspired enough by Petty\u2019s tunes on that night that he just might have borrowed an idea or two for his next record, something Petty wasn\u2019t shy about pointing out.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t quite go clean with us and Elvis Costello,\u201d he told interviewer Paul Zollo years later. \u201cElvis stole the ending of that song<\/a> [\u2018Listen to Her Heart\u2019], and he admits it! [laughs] He watched us do the ending, and he put it on this song he just wrote called \u2018Radio Radio\u2019. If you listen, it\u2019s the same ending! I thought that was humorous. \u2026 He admitted that he took it that night at the Riviera Theatre.\u201d<\/p>\n

By 1978, now in full, semi-respectful songwriting combat with one another, Petty and Costello were finally getting their overdue attention in America, as the Heartbreakers\u2019 You\u2019re Gonna Get It and Elvis\u2019s This Year\u2019s Model both reached the top 30 on the Billboard album chart. Costello\u2019s big moment had come during his US television debut on Saturday Night Live, when he famously switched up the agreed-upon song selection and tore through a blistering rendition of the Petty-inspired \u2018Radio Radio\u2019. It certainly felt like a punk rock moment, but then again, that word was starting to feel as poisonous as \u201cdisco\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a punk rocker who only appeals to a small group of people,\u201d Costello told the Scrantonian Tribune in 1978, noting that his current hits like \u2018Pump It Up\u2019 were getting embraced by the masses. \u201cI\u2019m a mainstream rock and roller who just wants to get all the pop off the radio and get some more rock back on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roughly a month later, Petty expressed a very similar sentiment to the Houston Chronicle while he was promoting his latest top 40 hits, \u2018I Need to Know\u2019 and \u2018Listen to Her Heart\u2019. \u201cI wasn\u2019t angry about being called a punk,\u201d he said. \u201cI just thought it was incorrect. And before I could finally get anybody to listen to me, I had to start screaming about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tom<\/a>Credit: Far Out \/ Album Covers<\/p>\n

That shared mission of the Heartbreakers and the Attractions was showing extremely fruitful results by the end of the decade. Costello\u2019s Armed Forces and Get Happy! LPs reached number ten and number 11, respectively, in America, while Petty\u2019s\u00a0Damn the Torpedoes\u00a0got all the way to number two. Unlike some of the prog rock or art rock of the same period, these records weren\u2019t dense or heavily conceptual either. They succeeded because they were jam-packed with great, instantly hummable radio songs. There might have been a hint of a punk edge still in there, but a new word was needed for whatever it was. Some critics went with \u201cpower-pop\u201d, but \u201cnew wave\u201d is the one that stuck.<\/p>\n

Tom Petty grew to tolerate the new label, even suggesting more than once that the Heartbreakers had \u201cinvented\u201d new wave. He still thought it was generally wrong for any band to put themselves exclusively under one umbrella, but felt alright calling himself a \u201ccard-carrying member\u201d of the new wave scene in 1979, telling the surely biased New Wave Rock magazine that he dug many of the other supposed members of the club, including Nick Lowe, the Cars, and the \u201cfantastic\u201d Elvis Costello.<\/p>\n

In retrospect, if the heyday of new wave can generally be described as the years between punk\u2019s initial flame out and the rise of MTV, 1977 to 1983, then it\u2019s hard to argue that any two songwriters churned out more classics in that span of time than Tom Petty and Elvis Costello. They were commercial darlings and hit makers with extremely broad appeal; edgy enough for the punks, poppy enough for the Top 40 kids, intellectual enough for the indie brats.<\/p>\n

There is plenty of room for both of them in the new wave Hall of Fame, should one ever be created. For the sake of pointless competition, though, the question must be asked\u2026 Who was the true master of the new wave universe,<\/a> the skilled tunesmith who delivered the most pound-for-pound power-pop perfection between the Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan administrations?<\/p>\n

The head-to-head tale of the tape is too close for any clear winner to be crowned, but it\u2019s a safe bet that every listener\u2019s sensibilities will nudge them one way or the other. Do you prefer a little Byrds-esque SoCal jangle with your radio jams, or are you more inclined to watch the proverbial \u201cangry young man\u201d of England gradually chill out by infusing his sound with Motown and Nashville?<\/p>\n

Maybe a single-for-single Petty vs Costello battle royale can settle the issue for you? Pick your winners from each of these match-ups and see who comes out on top. Or just enjoy listening to some of the best pop songs ever committed to tape.<\/p>\n

Tom Petty vs Elvis Costello \u2013 single vs single, 1977-1983:1977<\/p>\n