Rocktrospectiva: The Well-Received "Wild Flowers" Turns 30

 

Released on 1 November 1994, "Wildflowers" was the second solo studio album by American musician Tom Petty, it was the first album released by Petty after signing a contract with Warner Bros., where he had recorded as part of the Traveling Wilburys, and it was the first of three of his albums produced with Rick Rubin. Wildflowers was very well-received by critics and spawned four singles "You Don't Know How It Feels", "You Wreck Me", & "It's Good To Be King".

The album was credited only to Petty and not to his usual band, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers because, in Petty's words, "Rick Rubin  and him wanted more freedom than to be strapped into five guys." Nonetheless, the Heartbreakers predominantly served as the musicians on the album. The album features all the band's members with the exception of drummer Stan Lynch. Petty auditioned numerous drummers for the album, and eventually chose Steve Ferrone. Petty fired Lynch from the Heartbreakers just before the album's release, and Ferrone officially joined the touring band the following year, and later became a full band member.

Petty wrote and recorded numerous songs for the album, and the original plan was to have Wildflowers be a double album, with 25 songs in total. However, Lenny Waronker of Warner Bros. Records felt that the album was too long, and it was decided to reduce the album to 15 tracks. Of the 10 tracks left out, one, "Leave Virginia Alone", notably became a hit single the following year when it was recorded by Rod Stewart, while another four were included, in modified form, in Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' next album, the soundtrack album to the 1996 film She's the One. All ten songs, in their original form, were later released in the 2020 edition of Wildflowers, Wildflowers & All the Rest.

Petty explored middle-age reality on an effective album of "sweet-and-sour heartland rock", the album is not so accessible as Petty's previous albums such as "Southern Accents" & "Full Moon Fever" but its resolute passion and maturity grow more evident with each listen until the album acquires a haunting, enduring resonance, some other critics found the album inconsisyent and of course with lack of instant anthems. 

Four singles were released from the album between 1994 and 1995, the most successful of which, "You Don't Know How It Feels", reached No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Album Rock Tracks chart for one week. It was followed by "You Wreck Me", "It's Good to Be King" and "A Higher Place" which reached Nos. 2, 6, and 12 respectively on the Mainstream Rock chart.

 

Wildflowers Track List: 

 

1. Wildflowers

2. You Don't Know How It Feels

3. Time To Move On

4. You Wreck Me

5. It's Good To Be King

6. Only A Broken Heart

7. Honey Bee

8. Don't Fade On Me

9. Hard On Me

10. Cabin Down Below

11. To Find A Friend

12. A Higher Place

13. House In The Woods

14. Crawling Back To You

15. Wake Up Time