Wildflowers Tom Petty

Consider The Best of Everything a companion piece to An American Treasure, the first posthumous Tom Petty compilation. Weighing in at four CDs, An American Treasure was designed as a gift to the devoted who were still in mourning. In contrast, The Best of Everything is aimed at the fan who didn't dig quite so deep, or perhaps to listeners who always liked Petty but never bothered to purchase an album. The Best of Everything relies on the hits that were largely absent on the box set but it takes a similar non-chronological approach to sequencing, a move that emphasizes Petty's consistency as both a songwriter and recording artist. This distinguishes The Best of Everything from 2000's Anthology: Through the Years, which also spanned two discs and contained four fewer songs than this 2019 set. Apart from that notable aesthetic choice, there is a considerable amount of overlap between the two double-disc collections – namely, all the hits Petty had with and without the Heartbreakers between 1976 and 1993, when he switched from his longtime home of MCA to Warner.

October 16th sees the release of an expanded version of Tom Petty’s seminal album Wildflowers. The 4 CD deluxe edition of Wildflowers contains 54 tracks, 8 unreleased songs, and 24 unreleased alternate versions. In addition to the 15 track original album (remastered), the deluxe edition contains the album All The Rest (10 songs from the original Wildflowers sessions), a full CD of 15 solo demos recorded by Petty at his home studio, and a disc of 14 live versions of Wildflowers songs recorded from 1995 – 2017.

Originally released on the limited-edition Super Deluxe edition of Wildflowers….And All the Rest, Finding Wildflowers contains alternate versions of most of the album's songs. Notably, the single "You Don't Know How It Feels" is absent, along with "Time to Move On," but the B-side "Girl on LSD" is here, as are two versions of "Cabin Down Below," including a nicely shambling version of the blues tune. The sequencing on Finding Wildflowers doesn't attempt to replicate the original album, which works in its favor. "A Higher Place" opens the proceedings on a bright note with its harmonies and jangle, sounds that set the stage for the rest of the record.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of "She’s The One," we are releasing a remixed, remastered and re-imagined version of this album. The original album included several songs that were left off the original Wildflowers album (recently included as the "All The Rest" disc in the "Wildflowers & All The Rest" re-issue), so this re-release is an appropriate ending to the campaign celebrating the Wildflowers-era. Ryan Ulyate (Tom’s long-time engineer and producer) has remixed the audio, and the song selection is designed to work as a Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers album, rather than a soundtrack album. Four unreleased tracks have been added; the rocker “105 Degrees” (written by Petty), a cover of JJ Cale’s “Thirteen Days”, “One of Life’s Little Mysteries” (another Petty original), and an instrumental (“French Disconnection”) in the same vein as the instrumentals on the original album.

Angel Dream is a special reimagining of the album She’s The One to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its original release. This also brings to a close the celebration of Tom Petty’s masterpiece Wildflowers, as most of the songs on this album were recorded during the same time period. She’s The One included some songs that were left off the original Wildflowers album, recently included in the Wildflowers & All The Rest re-issue. To take the place of those songs, four previously unreleased songs have been added here – two Petty originals (“105 Degrees” and “One of Life’s Little Mysteries”), a cover of JJ Cale’s “Thirteen Days”, and the instrumental “French Disconnection”. An extended version of “Supernatural Radio” is also included. The album has been remixed & remastered and brand new cover art commissioned – emphasizing that this is a Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers album, rather than a soundtrack album. This very special version for RSD Drops is pressed on cobalt blue vinyl.

Finding Wildflowers (Alternate Versions) features 16 studio recordings of alternate takes, long cuts and jam versions of Wildflowers songs as Tom, band members and co-producer Rick Rubin worked to finalise the album in 1994.