Wildflowers is the second solo studio album by American musician Tom Petty, released on November 1, 1994, 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. (Lynch did play on one outtake from Wildflowers, "Something Could Happen").

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.

Outtakes

  • "Girl on LSD" was released as the B-side of the "You Don't Know How It Feels" single (1994).
  • "Leave Virginia Alone" was another song written and recorded during the sessions and left off the finished album. It was given to Rod Stewart for his album A Spanner in the Works (1995).
  • The songs "California", "Hope You Never", "Hung Up and Overdue", and "Climb That Hill" were all included on the She's the One soundtrack album (1996), with various edits across the first three tracks, while "Climb That Hill" was a complete remake.
  • In 2018, outtake "Lonesome Dave," recorded July 23, 1993, was released on Petty's posthumous box set An American Treasure.
  • In 2021, a cover of J.J. Cale's "Thirteen Days," recorded July 22, 1993, was released on the reimagined version of 'She's the One soundtrack album, Angel Dream.

Release and reception

Reviewing Wildflowers for USA Today, Edna Gundersen wrote that, in contrast to the "adolescent fantasies" of fellow rockers such as Aerosmith and the Rolling Stones, Petty explored "middle-age reality" on an effective album of "sweet-and-sour heartland rock". The title track, while not released as a single, charted at No. 16 on the Billboard Hot Rock Songs chart and at No. 3 on the Billboard Lyric Find. and became one of Petty's most streamed and popular songs.

In a retrospective review, AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine found that Wildflowers is distinguished within Petty's discography by "its casual gait" and extended length, allowing it to capture "the full range of Tom Petty as a singer, songwriter, and rocker." and later ranked the record at number 214 on its 2020 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Guitar World placed the album at number 49 in their "Superunknown: 50 Iconic Albums That Defined 1994" list.

In April 2015, when Petty's back catalog was released in high-resolution audio, this was one of only two albums not included in the series (Songs and Music from "She's the One" was the other one), but a hi-res version was available on Pono Music.

The title of the 2020 book Somewhere You Feel Free: Tom Petty and Los Angeles comes from a lyric in the album's title song "Wildflowers".

Wildflowers & All the Rest

Petty's family and bandmates arranged a 2020 re-release of the album that includes deleted songs, demos, and live tracks, entitled Wildflowers & All the Rest. Disc four, Wildflowers Live, consists of fourteen previously unreleased tracks, two of which had only been distributed to fan club members. These live tracks were recorded on various tours from 1995 to 2017. The super deluxe edition of the box set included a fifth disc of alternate versions of the Wildflowers tracks, called Finding Wildflowers. In April 2021, Finding Wildflowers was released individually.

Documentary

The making of Wildflowers is the subject of the 2021 documentary film Tom Petty: Somewhere You Feel Free – The Making of Wildflowers, directed by Mary Wharton. The documentary includes a significant amount of archival footage from the recording sessions, recorded by Martyn Atkins, which had only recently been unearthed following Petty's death; as well as new interviews with many of the producers and musicians who had been involved with the album. The film was released in November 2021 on YouTube.

Track listing

Personnel

Personnel taken from the album's liner notes.

  • Tom Petty – lead vocals (all tracks), acoustic guitar (1, 2, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 16–19, 20, 21, 25), electric guitar (2–5, 7, 10, 13, 14, 20, 22, 24), harmonica (2, 12, 20, 21), bass guitar (2, 12, 20), harmony vocals (2, 5, 14, 20–22, 24), Hammond organ (14), piano (15), tambourine (16, 24), harpsichord (22)
  • Mike Campbell – electric guitar (tracks 2, 4, 5, 7, 9–14, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22–25), bass guitar (1, 3, 5, 6, 11, 13–15, 17, 23, 24), slide guitar (3, 25), acoustic guitar (8), Coral sitar (11), harpsichord (1), piano (20), 6-string bass (20), organ (23), drums (23)
  • Benmont Tench – piano (tracks 1, 3–7, 9, 10, 12–14, 17, 25), grand piano (2), electric piano (2, 24), organ (4, 6, 9, 12, 14, 22, 25), Mellotron (6, 14, 25), tack piano (11, 16), harmonium (1, 6, 12, 16, 17, 19), harpsichord (25), zenon (11), Orchestron (12)
  • Howie Epstein – harmony vocals (tracks 2, 4, 5, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, 24), bass guitar (4, 7, 10, 16, 19, 22, 25), backing vocals (7)
  • Steve Ferrone – drums (tracks 1–7, 9, 10, 12–15, 17, 19, 20, 22, 24)

Additional musicians

  • Lenny Castro – percussion (tracks 1, 2, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 14, 25), tambourine (17)
  • George Drakoulias – "must have played something" (track 1)
  • Brandon Fields – saxophone (track 13)
  • Greg Herbig – saxophone (track 13)
  • Jim Horn – saxophone (track 13)
  • Kim Hutchcroft – saxophone (track 13)
  • Phil Jones – percussion (tracks 4, 10, 22), tambourine (20)
  • Michael Kamen – orchestration, conductor (tracks 1, 3, 5, 15)
  • Stan Lynch – drums (track 16) (tracks 3, 4, 9, 10, 15, 16 on Finding Wildflowers - Alternate Versions)
  • John Pierce – bass guitar (track 9)
  • Marty Rifkin – pedal steel guitar (track 13)
  • Ringo Starr – drums (tracks 11, 25) (track 13 on Finding Wildflowers - Alternate Versions)
  • Carl Wilson – backing vocals (tracks 7, 25)

Production

  • Rick Rubin – producer (tracks 1–17, 19, 20, 22, 24, 25)
  • Tom Petty – producer (all tracks), engineer (tracks 18, 21), mixer (track 18)
  • Mike Campbell – producer (tracks 1–17, 19, 20, 22–25)
  • Ryan Ulyate – producer and engineer (track 21), mixer (tracks 16, 17, 19, 20–25)
  • Jim Scott – engineer (tracks 1–17, 19, 20, 22, 24, 25)
  • David Bianco – engineer (tracks 1–15)
  • Richard Dodd – engineer (tracks 1–15, 24), mixer (tracks 1–15)
  • Brian Scheuble – engineer (track 23)
  • Clif Norrell – engineer (track 24)
  • Jeff Sheehan – assistant engineer (tracks 1–15, 19)
  • Joe Barresi – assistant engineer (tracks 1–15, 17, 20, 22)
  • Steve Holyrod – assistant engineer (tracks 1–16)
  • Kenji Nasai – assistant mixer (tracks 1–15)
  • Stephen Marcussen – mastering

Charts

Weekly charts

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|+ Weekly chart performance for Wildflowers

|-

! scope="col"| Chart (1994)

! scope="col"| Peak<br />position

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{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|+Chart performance for Wildflowers & All the Rest

|-

! scope="col"| Chart (2020)

! scope="col"| Peak<br />position

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|-

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|-

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|-

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|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

! scope="row"| Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)

| 11

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|-

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{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|+Chart performance for Finding Wildflowers

|-

! scope="col"| Chart (2021)

! scope="col"| Peak<br />position

|-

! scope="row"| Swedish Physical Albums (Sverigetopplistan)

| 11

|-

! scope="row"| Swedish Vinyl Albums (Sverigetopplistan)

| 10

|-

! scope="row"| US Billboard 200

| 112

|}

Year-end charts

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|+Year-end chart performance for Wildflowers

|-

! scope="col"| Chart (1995)

! scope="col"| Position

|-

! scope="row"| US Billboard 200

| 16

|-

! scope="col"| Chart (2020)

! scope="col"| Position

|-

! scope="row"| US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)

| 64

|-

! scope="col"| Chart (2021)

! scope="col"| Position

|-

! scope="row"| US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)

| 78

|}

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"

|+Chart performance for singles from Wildflowers

!scope="col"|Year

!scope="col"|Single

!scope="col"|Chart

!scope="col"|Position

|-

|1994

!scope="row" rowspan="2" |"You Don't Know How It Feels"

|US Mainstream Rock Chart

|1

|-

| rowspan="4" |1995

|US Billboard Hot 100

|13

|-

!scope="row"|"It's Good to Be King"

|6

|-

!scope="row"|"A Higher Place"

|12

|}

Certifications

References