Into the Great Wide Open is the eighth studio album by American rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers but ninth overall for Tom Petty. Released in July 1991, it was the band's last with MCA Records and the last with drummer Stan Lynch who left in 1994. The album was the second that Petty produced with Jeff Lynne, following the successful Full Moon Fever (1989).
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers recorded the album in Studio C at Rumbo Recorders, which charged a rate of $600 per day. The studio was equipped with a 24-input Trident 80 B console and an Otari MTR90 MkII two-inch, 24-track machine.
"Learning to Fly", the first single from the album, spent six weeks at No. 1 on Billboards Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, tying "The Waiting" (1981) for the band's longest run atop the chart. The album's second single, "Out in the Cold", also topped the Mainstream Rock chart, though for two weeks.
The music video for the title track stars Johnny Depp as "Eddie", who moves to Los Angeles as a teenager to seek rock stardom, and also features appearances by Gabrielle Anwar, Faye Dunaway, Matt LeBlanc, Terence Trent D'Arby, and Chynna Phillips.
Artwork
Featured on the album's cover is the (slightly-cropped) painting Autumn Landscape (1921) by Czech artist Jan Matulka. The original is owned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Singles
The album's first single, "Learning to Fly", was released on June 17, 1991, two weeks prior to the album, and was a substantial hit for Petty. The second single, the title track, was released just over two months after the album's release, and also became one of the band's biggest hits. Both songs were top 10 singles on various charts. The third single, "Out in the Cold", was a minor hit, not achieving the commercial success of the first two. Throughout 1992, four additional singles were released: "Makin' Some Noise", "All or Nothin'", "Too Good to Be True", and "King's Highway".
Critical reception
Into the Great Wide Open was warmly received by critics. Dave DiMartino, reviewing the album for Entertainment Weekly, called it the closest thing to a "classic" album that Petty and the Heartbreakers had made in 15 years, and a return to the quality of their first two albums. He felt this was likely due to the involvement of Jeff Lynne, and commented that he felt the songs on Into the Great Wide Open are "obviously" better than those on Full Moon Fever, which had also been created in collaboration with Lynne. which indicates a "worthy effort consumers attuned to its overriding aesthetic or individual vision may well like".
Track listing
Spoken interlude
As a tongue-in-cheek reference to the "Hello, CD Listeners" interlude on compact disc releases of Full Moon Fever, on cassette tape releases of this album there is a brief spoken interlude at the end of Side One. In it, Petty instructs cassette listeners how to properly flip over their tape and prepare it for Side Two. "Attention cassette listeners, you have now completed Side One. In order to hear Side Two, please fast forward to the end of the reel before turning the tape over. Thank you."
Personnel
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
- Tom Petty – lead and backing vocals, rhythm guitars (acoustic, electric, 12-string), keyboards, percussion
- Mike Campbell – guitars (lead, 12-string, baritone, bass, resonator, slide), keyboards, bouzouki, mandolin, hammer dulcimer, backing vocals on "Learning to Fly"
- Benmont Tench – electric and upright pianos, accordion
- Howie Epstein – harmony and backing vocals, bass
- Stan Lynch – drums, percussion
Additional musicians
- Jeff Lynne – guitars, bass, backing vocals, piano, synthesizer, percussion, sound effects
- Roger McGuinn – backing vocals on "All The Wrong Reasons"
- Richard Tandy – synthesizer on "Two Gunslingers"
Additional personnel
- Jeff Lynne – producer
- Tom Petty – producer
- Mike Campbell – producer
- Richard Dodd – engineer
Charts
Weekly charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+Weekly chart performance for Into the Great Wide Open
! scope="col"| Chart (1991)
! scope="col"| Peak<br />position
|-
|-
|-
! scope="row"| Canadian Albums (RPM)
| 4
|-
|-
|-
! scope="row"| Japanese Albums (Oricon)
| 96
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|}
Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+1991 annual chart performance for Into the Great Wide Open
! scope="col"| Chart (1991)
! scope="col"| Position
|-
! scope="row"| Canadian Albums (RPM)
| 21
|-
! scope="row"| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)
| 53
|-
! scope="row"| US Billboard 200
| 71
|}
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+1992 annual chart performance for Into the Great Wide Open
! scope="col"| Chart (1992)
! scope="col"| Position
|-
! scope="row"| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)
| 90
|}