{"id":1028125,"date":"2026-08-27T20:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T20:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1028125\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T20:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T20:56:13","slug":"remembering-when-a-tom-petty-single-embraced-the-era-of-big-production-and-even-bigger-videos-in-1985","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1028125\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering When a Tom Petty Single Embraced the Era of Big Production and Even Bigger Videos in 1985"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tom Petty didn\u2019t generally think in terms of singles. Petty was more about the body of work, ensuring that every song that he recorded, including album cuts and B-sides, received similar amounts of care and diligence.<\/p>\n

But in 1985, he worked overtime to get a single just right. That not only included taking extensive time with it in the studio but also encompassed the most ornate video of his career.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tVideos by American Songwriter\t\t<\/p>\n

Eurythmic Eureka<\/p>\n

Coming off four straight successful albums to start his recording career, Tom Petty easily could have kept the status quo for album No. 5. But he began to feel a certain amount of stagnation settling into his approach with The Heartbreakers. That\u2019s why he wanted to shake things up a little.<\/p>\n

His first thought was to make the new LP a concept album loosely related to living in the American South. But that plan started to lose some steam once Petty met Dave Stewart. The British musician known for his work with Eurythmics<\/a> hit LA and met up with Petty. They became fast friends. In between bouts of hitting the town, they carved out some time to record.<\/p>\n

It was Stewart who started the process of creating \u201cDon\u2019t Come Around Here No More\u201d. He came up with a few chord changes to light the fire. From there, the two men spent weeks perfecting the song. Petty knew it was a departure from what he\u2019d done before, which was part of the draw.<\/p>\n

A Sitar Situation <\/p>\n

\t\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Play\"\/<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t Come Around Here No More\u201d didn\u2019t really fit in with the concept album that Petty was supposed to be creating. But he was so excited about its unique nature that he insisted upon seeing it through. Unlike his usual approach, he earmarked the song as a single right from the jump.<\/p>\n

He and Stewart added all manner of embellishments, from the programmed, stammering drumbeat that engirdles the track to the coral sitar part that made it more exotic than anything he\u2019d released to that point. Although some of the Heartbreakers were skeptical, Petty felt the otherness of it all was just what he needed, as he explained to Paul Zollo in the book Conversations With Tom Petty<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, it wasn\u2019t something that we were going to do a lot. But it was just anything to get out of what we\u2019d been doing. I desperately wanted to find a new page. (Laughs.) To get somewhere we hadn\u2019t been. And that helped, in that sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hatter Hysteria<\/p>\n

Considering that \u201cDon\u2019t Come Around Here No More\u201d was slated to be released in 1985, Petty knew that, if he really wanted it to make a mark as a single, he\u2019d have to make a video that didn\u2019t skimp on the production value. Dave Stewart started this process as well, telling Petty he envisioned himself in the video playing sitar while sitting on a mushroom.<\/p>\n

From there, Petty and company concocted an elaborate, Alice In Wonderland-inspired tale, one where the singer portrays a somewhat sinister Mad Hatter. The video ends in a somewhat grisly fashion. But it was right up MTV\u2019s alley.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t Come Around Here No More\u201d served its purpose, landing at No. 13 on the pop charts, Petty\u2019s second-biggest hit to that point. The song also gave Southern Accents a boost, even if it wasn\u2019t indicative of Petty\u2019s original vision for the album. And it remains unique in his catalog as a moment in time where TP went all-in for pop music glory, albeit in a slightly askew fashion.<\/p>\n

Photo by Gary Gershoff\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom Petty didn\u2019t generally think in terms of singles. Petty was more about the body of work, ensuring…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1028126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[29],"tags":[42586,171,975,4185,67151,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1028125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-1980s","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-rock-music","tag-tom-petty","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117169473855904248","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1028125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1028126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1028125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1028125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1028125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}