In the middle of 70's, Petty was just spreading his wings. He began with a group named the Sundowners and another named The Epics and Mudcrutch. It wasn't intil '76 that Petty & The Heartbreakers was forged. That same year, their first release debuted. Regrettably, the album wasn't a great success in the U.S. Later on, in 1977, the singel named "Breakdown" was re-published and climbed up to #40 in the harts.

The 2nd and 3rd releases did alot better. The 2nd was named "Your Gonna Get It!" It was the bands 1st Top 40 album, boasting the singles"I Need To Know" & "Listen To Her Heart". Their third release, "Damn The Torpedos", had the singles "Don't Do Me Like That" and "Refugee". The album soared to platinum, selling nearly 2 million copies. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers had made it to the top of the 1970's rock & roll charts in style.

It wasn't until the mid 1980's that the next album "Southern Accents" was published. At the time, the video for "Don't Come Around Here No More" was criticized by radicals. The music video depicted Petty dressed as the Mad Hatter from poor Alice In Wonderland. He and his curious friends mock and chase hapless Alice, then they feast on her like a cake. Devotees thought it was awesome though and it is a classic video to this very day!

Tom took a bit of time for a solo attempt and cooperative projects. In '88, he founded the Travelling Willburys with friends Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, George Harrison and Jeff Lynne. The groups first song,"Handle With Care", was designated as a B-side for one of Harrisons singles, but it was just too good. This led off to them recording an album they named The Travelling Willburys Vol. 1. After Orbisons death, a second release titled, The Travelling willburys Vol. 3 was released. Since Harrison's death, Petty has been integrating the groups songs into his stage shows, perhaps it is a tribute to Orbison & Harrison.

The release, "Full Moon Fever" was published in 1989. It produced three hits that still get air-play today; "I Won't Back Down", "Free Fallin" and "Runnin' Down A Dream". Although this album was believed a solo effort, Tom Petty got a hand from a few of the Heartbreakers and other artists.

The nineties brought three new albums from Petty. The first, called "Into the Great Wide Open" was released in '91. The lead song and "Learning To Fly" were both hits. Then, in 1994, "Wildflowers" was released. It included the wildly popular "You Don't Know How It Feels" and the album continued on to sell over 3 million units in the U.s.

In 1996, Petty and the Heartbreakers got together once again. This time, they produced the audio recording for the movie "She's The One" starring Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Aniston. There were 3 singles released from the album as well as a cover of a Jeff Beck song. Later that year, Petty and the band also joined up with the great Johnny Cash on his "Unchained" album.

In 1999, they issued another recording named "Echo". This album moved up to number 10 in the U.S. album charts and two tunes were released as singles in the United States, "Room at the Top" and "Free Girl Now".

"The Last DJ", released in '02 criticized the recording industry. Tom Petty talked about the industries developing greed, diluted music, and abuse of releasing pop music made by scantily-clad young ladies. The album spoke to the fans though and finally reached number 9 on the U.S. music charts.

Petty is still out there performing live and in the studio. He's a household name in the rock and roll scene. Rock & roll fans have loved this fabled artist for decades. After over 30 years in the industry, producing music and touring, this well traveled veteran is one of the very best rockers out there.

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