Tom Petty – Full Moon Fever (2nd Press)

At this point there were only a few Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers albums I needed. I put them on the back burner because I figured they’d be around for a long time with what was likely an indefinite pressing quantity. But then, bam, the untimely death of Tom Petty sent things into a free for all.

Seemingly overnight any and all albums with any association to Tom Petty sold out. So it became an increasingly harder task to not only find the outstanding albums I needed to complete my Tom Petty collection, but to find them for a decent price. Full Moon Fever was one of these albums.

Original retail price on it was $25, which is way more than I want to pay for a single LP. Considering I picked up some of the recent re-presses of other Heartbreakers albums (The Last DJ, Echo and the She’s The One Soundtrack) at a highly discounted price last year, I was waiting for the price on Full Moon Fever to drop in similar fashion. It never happened. This album actually inflated in price on the secondary market after his death. The original retail price on Full Moon Fever was also around $25, but people were bidding up copies of the re-press, not the original pressing, upwards of $40 on ebay. Which in turn sent the price on Discogs up as well.

Fortunately this dilemma was short lived, as the label was in the process of re-pressing the album. I’ll never understand the mad dash to buy albums, movies, books, etc from recently deceased people. I know it sparks a renewed interest or even sparks a discovery period into the musician/band/singer, actor and/or writer, but seriously; who hasn’t heard of Tom Petty?

It took until March 2018 for the re-press to be done, which coincidentally coincided with an insane sale going on where I got this record for 40% off, with free shipping . And tax free as well. So I wound up paying around $15; a price I’m comfortable paying for a single LP.

Both the 2017 and 2018 re-presses of Full Moon Fever were done to replicate the original pressing released back in 1989. It’s not just a record stuffed into a plain white paper dust sleeve crammed into a jacket. Geffen (which absorbed MCA Records, who originally released this album) included the printed dust sleeve that originally came with Full Moon Fever when it was first released. For these modern re-presses, the record actually comes in a separate plain white paper dust sleeve, and the printed dust sleeve in slid into the jacket by itself. The re-presses are also done on 180 gram vinyl. It’s also worth noting that these re-presses were re-mastered from the original analog tapes at Bernie Grundman Mastering.

What I own is actually the Euro pressing, which was done in the Netherlands. The place I bought it from did not specifically state it was the Euro pressing, so I assumed I was getting a copy from the U.S. pressing. But there are no discernible differences between the two pressings other than catalog number and a sticker on the back of the Euro pressing that says “pressed in the Netherlands.” The catalog number for the Euro pressing (featured here) is 00602547658593 and the catalog number for the U.S. pressing is B0024291-01.

Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers – Into The Great Wide Open (2nd Press)

At this point there were only a few Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers albums I needed. I put them on the back burner because I figured they’d be around for a long time with what was likely an indefinite pressing quantity. But then, bam, the untimely death of Tom Petty sent things into a free for all.

Seemingly overnight any and all albums with any association to Tom Petty sold out. So it became an increasingly harder task to not only find the outstanding albums I needed to complete my Tom Petty collection, but to find them for a decent price. Into The Great Wide Open was one of these albums.

Original retail price on it was $25, which is way more than I want to pay for a single LP. Considering I picked up some of the recent re-presses of other Heartbreakers albums (The Last DJ, Echo and the She’s The One Soundtrack) at a highly discounted price last year, I was waiting for the price on Into The Great Wide Open to drop in similar fashion. It never happened. But at least it wasn’t Petty’s “solo” album Full Moon Fever, which actually inflated in price on the secondary market after his death. The original retail price on Full Moon Fever was also around $25, but people were bidding up copies of the re-press, not the original pressing, upwards of $40 on ebay. Which in turn sent the price on Discogs up as well.

Fortunately this dilemma was short lived, as the label was in the process of re-pressing both albums. I’ll never understand the mad dash to buy albums, movies, books, etc from recently deceased people. I know it sparks a renewed interest in the artist, actor and/or writer, but seriously; who hasn’t heard of Tom Petty?

It took until March 2018 for the re-press to be done, which coincidentally coincided with an insane sale going on where I got this record for 40% off, with free shipping . And tax free as well. So I wound up paying around $15; a price I’m comfortable paying for a single LP.

Both the 2017 and 2018 re-presses of Into The Great Wide Open were done to replicate the original pressing released back in 1991. It’s not just a record stuffed into a plain white paper dust sleeve crammed into a jacket. Geffen (which absorbed MCA Records, who originally released this album) included the printed dust sleeve that originally came with Into The Great Wide Open when it was first released. For this modern re-presses, the record actually comes in a separate plain white paper dust sleeve, and the printed dust sleeve is slid into the jacket by itself. The re-presses are also done on 180 gram vinyl. It’s also worth noting that these re-presses were re-mastered from the original analog tapes at Bernie Grundman Mastering.

What I own is actually the Euro pressing, which was done in the Netherlands. The place I bought it from did not specifically it was the Euro pressing, so I assumed I was getting a copy from the U.S. pressing. But there are no discernible differences between the two pressings other than catalog number and a sticker on the back of the Euro pressing that says “pressed in the Netherlands.” The catalog number for the Euro pressing (featured here) is 00602547658647 and the catalog number for the U.S. pressing is B0024292-01.

Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers – Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough)

One of the missing pieces of my Tom Petty collection (both solo and with the Heartbreakers) was Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough). To be honest, this is my least favorite of their albums, which is why it took me so long to pick up. I likely could have scored an original pressing, but the untimely death of Tom Petty sent prices on those sky rocketing overnight. So I opted for a copy from the most recent pressing from 2016. I bought it for $12 shipped, and for that price I’m happier to buy a new copy of the album than play the hit or miss game of buying used records on ebay.

The 2016 re-press of Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough) replicates 99% of the physical aspects of the original pressing from 1987. It has the same printed dust sleeve and center labels. All it’s missing is the hype sticker that came with some copies of the original 1987 pressing. There is no download card/code included with the 2016 re-press, which is pretty lame by today’s standards. But it’s a major label release, and a re-press at that, so it’s sadly not surprising.

I mentioned above what I paid for this record, but the original retail price on it was around $25. Which was yet another reason why I held off on buying it. But at this point if you can find a copy of this record for under $20 I would buy it, because with the passing of Tom Petty, prices on any record with his name associated with it have increased.

Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers – The Best Of Everything

I’ve said it regarding Record Store Days of years past, but I can’t say it now given Tom Petty’s passing, but the players at the table have cashed in on it. Typically when a musician passes it signals an opportunity for those fortunate enough to have a seat at the table to view it as an opportunity to make money. Given Tom Petty’s stance on the music industry, the age old debate of art over profit, it sadly came as no surprise that not one, but two, compilations of his catalog were released posthumous. It’s not all bad though, as his family fought to retain the rights and royalties for his music, but there is still a divide amongst the family regarding his estate. Which, again, harkens back to the fights between artist and big business.

As a bystander I’m torn. Do I want more Tom Petty music? Absolutely. But do I want it like this? No. When he passed it was one of the few times in recent memory where I cried. I was devastated actually. When I heard he was clinging to life in a hospital bed I played The Heartbreakers greatest hits as loud as I could without blowing out my speakers. I didn’t care that it was the early AM hours, or that it was an unusually cold night in early October, I purposely opened the windows in that particular room in my house. My efforts were verified when my next door neighbor knocked on my door the next day, telling me, and I will always remember this: “I was going to bang on your door to have you turn the music down because my kid couldn’t sleep. But once I realized what you were playing I didn’t have the heart to do it. My wife was upset too, but once I told her why she understood. I love Tom Petty too and I was getting annoyed with the noise until I put two and two together.” We hugged each other and we went about our separate days.

Later that day I again made it a point to not only play, but blast all of his albums that I own (I still don’t have Wildflowers unfortunately) in chronological order, with the windows down in my house. That same neighbor came over and had a drink with me. We shared tears and beers. It one one of those moments you’ll never forget and one I’ll always look back on fondly, despite it being spawned out of tragedy.

Enough of my personal attachment to Tom Petty and his music. This greatest hits compilation, entitled The Best Of Everything, was released on vinyl as a quadruple LP. There are two variants; clear and black. The clear is the only one that is limited, with “1,000 copies” pressed. I say 1,000 in quotes because that was a blatant lie. Even if you take into account the typical 10% overrun, that is only an additional 100 copies. Some people who ordered the first week pre-orders went live received copies numbered in the 1600 range. Low and behold, only AFTER pre-orders started shipping, did Tom Petty’s official web store change the pressing info to reflect that 2,000 copies were pressed. Kind of hard to hide the fact that you literally scammed people when you’re stamping copies with a unique, individual number that is WAYYYYY higher than 1,000…

That sad fact reflects back on my aforementioned qualms with people cashing in on his passing. Text book definition of false advertising, and I would’ve been angry had I bought a clear copy. Sadly I I knew copies of this release would be readily available in the future, and by future I mean seven months after release, for very cheap. Which is why I waited to buy this.

It’s yet another kick in the pants that clear copies cost $90 as opposed to the $80 Tom Petty’s official web store charged for copies on black vinyl. Most retailers, who only had access to black copies, wanted close to $80 for it too. Some started to slash prices to $60 in the fall of 2019, but at that price I still didn’t bite. I bought this for $35 shipped, from Canada no less, with free shipping attached. Canada is the last bastion for U.S. based folks to take advantage of exchange rates and reasonable international shipping charges.

So let’s go into the finer details of this box set. Did I not mention that earlier? Yes, this is a box set. All four LPs in the set come housed in a slip case, with each individual record in a separate, unique dust sleeve printed on thick card stock with a matte finish. Each dust sleeve is a different color; the first is black, second is red, third is cream and fourth is white. The center labels of each respective LP match their respective dust sleeve. I can’t speak for the clear copies, but my copy on black vinyl is pressed on 180 gram vinyl.

There are two different hype stickers, which are unique to each variant. All the clear copies come with a gold circle sticker, that says “limited edition colored vinyl.” All copies on black vinyl come with a red circle sticker that highlights some songs found on the release. It seems like the plant was lackadaisical with affixing these hype stickers, as mine is not straight even to a cross-eyed person. See the photo gallery below as an example.

It seems ZERO pride was done with getting this release out the door. From the blatant lie of there being 1,000 copies pressed on clear (literally double were pressed), to stickers being placed at awkward angles out of laziness; the ball was dropped in many places. I’ve had mundane jobs for menial wage; you should still have enough self worth and pride to stick a sticker on properly. This didn’t happen because of machinery glitches or errors; it happened because some clown in the plant simply didn’t care. Which sums up the underlying issues with this release. Which is a shame because it sounds great; it’s just marred with greed, lies and laziness.

A few Greatest Hits compilations have been released for Tom Petty and Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers. This is one of the first to include songs aside from his solo work and Heartbreakers material, as it includes Mudcrutch songs. On top of that, The Best Of Everything compilation includes two, never before released songs, with one being a new, unheard song from the Petty vaults. “This Is For Real” is the new, unheard song. It’s the last track on the comp. While an alternate version of “The Best of Everything” from Southern Accents is the other exclusive, “new” song. If not for those two songs, well really only “This Is For Real,” this comp would be something a casual Petty fan could easily pass on buying. It just sucks that a great, unheard Tom Petty song has to be included on such a frivolous, expensive, compilation.