Why Tom Petty ‘Origins 1971-1978’ Isn’t Your Normal Box Set: ‘The Important Thing Was Making a Good Album’
Categoria: Musica
The set of rarities rounds up Tom Petty & the Heartbreaker's "feral" early recordings from the '70s.
Por Billboard | 06/11/2026
Adria Petty says an anniversary, to her, is “a very uncool marketing thing.” But this year’s 50th anniversary of the self-titled debut album by her father, the late Tom Petty, and his band the Heartbreakers was too good of a storytelling opportunity to pass up. “I really want to acknowledge the Heartbreakers this year, ’cause they’re all alive and have achieved so much and are still going strong now,” Petty — who co-produced the new box set Origins 1971-78 — tells Billboard via Zoom from California. “This anniversary is really important to us. It’s really important to us that everybody gets their flowers when they’re still alive…. ( Origins ) is the musical diagram to how Tom became Tom and the Heartbreakers and how they found their way to this music.” Out Friday (Nov. 6), Origins represents a two-year undertaking that dove deep into Petty and the Heartbreakers’ vaults, primarily conducted by the Petty Legacy LLC brain trust which also includes longtime producer/engineer Ryan Ulyate and managers Will Botwin and Scott Greer. The multi-disc set includes new mixes of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and 1978’s You’re Gonna Get It! (with extended versions of some of the tracks), an unreleased Live From the Record Plant 1977 performance and videos from the BBC’s Old Grey Whistle Test in 1978. The focal point, however, is No Sleep Til L.A ., which features a dozen early tracks from 1971-77 — recorded by the pre-Heartbreakers band Mudcrutch and Petty solo in addition to the Heartbreakers — as well as five more included on an EP dubbed The Cut Out Bin . Those will also be issued as a separate, individual album as well as on the box set. “This body of work, to me, is sort of a Rosetta Stone for rock ‘n’ roll in a weird way,” explains Adria Petty, a music video and commercial director in addition to her Petty Legacy role. Since Tom Petty’s death in 2017 at the age of 66, she’s also co-produced archival projects. “They could take it to reggae, they could take it to disco, they could take it to soul, they could really take it to country rock — this, that or the other. They went their own way and became an amalgam of all that. They were just experimenting, making noise together that they liked. My responsibility here is to point out the cultural importance, that during disco, during their aftermath of Vietnam, these guys blazed their own trail and kept it going for 50 years.” Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench, who was also part of Mudcrutch along with Petty and guitarist Mike Campbell, confirms via Zoom from his home that before the first Heartbreakers album, “We were searching. I think ( No Sleep Til L.A./The Cut Out Bin ) is nice because you can hear where Tom is listening to some country stuff and also listening to R&B and to Van Morrison. And the rest of us are just going, &#