{"id":661628,"date":"2026-06-27T19:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T19:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/661628\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T19:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T19:48:11","slug":"the-1965-song-tom-petty-played-all-his-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/661628\/","title":{"rendered":"The 1965 song Tom Petty played all his life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tom<\/p>\n

Credit: Far Out \/ YouTube Still<\/p>\n

Sat 27 June 2026 18:50, UK <\/p>\n

Any artist will have those few moments when their songs start to sound old after a while. <\/p>\n

Going on the road is bound to do a number on one\u2019s taste for their own music, and even if it manages to come together in the studio, it\u2019s tough to have the same love for one of your masterpieces if you\u2019re forced to play it every other day while on the road. Then again, Tom Petty<\/a> was a child of rock and roll, and there were certain songs that he could still play for years at a time and never get bored of.<\/p>\n

That said, there was never any point where Petty\u2019s music fell out of style with the public, either. He had the same earnest approach to his music that Neil Young had during his prime, and since Petty managed to never go against his record company and unleash something like Everybody\u2019s Rockin\u2019 upon the world, half of his greatest moments came from him making perfect heartland rock.<\/p>\n

That consistency was never the result of complacency. Petty believed the strongest songs were built on timeless songwriting rather than fashionable production, allowing his catalogue to age gracefully while many of his contemporaries became tethered to the sounds of a particular decade.<\/p>\n

This is strange, considering half of his greatest influences came from the British invasion. Even though he debuted in the middle of the pun movement years after the likes of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, there are still pieces of his first few albums that seemed like they were ripped straight out of 1964, only with the British twang replaced with his trademark southern drawl.<\/p>\n

\"Tom<\/a>Credit: Far Out \/ YouTube Still<\/p>\n

But while the British invasion was certainly fun for what it was in the 1960s, The Byrds were the first band to compete with the likes of the Fab Four. While The Beatles claimed that the jangly rockers were one of their favourite acts, Roger McGuinn\u2019s original compositions were light years different from what John Lennon and Paul McCartney had done. There was a lot of Dylan influence in the band\u2019s repertoire, but \u2018I\u2019ll Feel A Whole Lot Better\u2019 felt like the beginning of what would become power pop.<\/p>\n

For Petty, The Byrds represented the perfect balance between folk storytelling and rock energy. Their chiming Rickenbacker guitars and concise songwriting became a blueprint he would revisit throughout his career, whether consciously or otherwise, helping define the unmistakable sound of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.<\/p>\n

Despite the band being known later for helping invent country rock with Gram Parsons, everything you need to know about a two-minute pop song can be found here. There\u2019s nothing too flashy about the melody, and by using only a handful of chords to twist things around, McGuinn made his own version of \u2018If I Needed Someone<\/a>\u2019 a few years before George Harrison could write The Beatles\u2019 classic.<\/p>\n

Although Petty did have a wealth of classics in his arsenal, he said that he would gladly play the Byrds\u2019 classic forever, saying<\/a>, \u201cI just love the Byrds so much. I\u2019m their biggest fan, to this day. It\u2019s kind of embarrassing sometimes, \u2019cause I play these same albums over and over. I went to see them play when they played the Ventura Theatre. Jeff [Lynne] went with me. And when they played that song, I went, \u2018Man, that\u2019s a good song.\u2019 I\u2019ve played it all my life in bands.\u201d<\/p>\n

And when Petty and Lynne reworked the song for the record Full Moon Fever, they could only serve what McGuinn had already laid down. While it\u2019s not necessarily a one-to-one exact copy, hearing Petty\u2019s lazy vocal tone welcome everything in makes the track feel like a lost relic of the 1960s that someone waited until 1989 to be put out, complete with Mike Campbell matching McGuinn\u2019s guitar solo.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s impossible to capture the essence of what The Byrds did on the original, but that was the whole appeal to Petty when he started writing his own songs. He never wanted to outdo McGuinn, but if he tried hard enough, he felt he might have a shot at having his own classics under his belt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Petty understood better than most that influence isn\u2019t about imitation but conversation. He never tried to replace Roger McGuinn or rewrite the history of The Byrds; instead, he carried their spirit into a new era, proving that the greatest compliment one songwriter can pay another is to keep their songs alive. Judging by how often he returned to \u2018I\u2019ll Feel a Whole Lot Better\u2019, it remained a reminder of why he fell in love with rock and roll in the first place.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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