Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. Damn The Torpedoes (1979)

Damn the Torpedoes is an album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released in 1979. The title is a reference to a famous quote by Admiral David Farragut. The album was recorded at Sound City in Van Nuys and Cherokee Studios in Hollywood.

This album, the band's third, was their first for MCA Records. Their old label, Shelter Records, had been sold to MCA; Petty struggled to legally detach himself from MCA, but in the end was forced to settle. He negotiated a deal that allowed him to release his recordings on the new Backstreet Records label, manufactured and distributed by MCA. Damn the Torpedoes ended up being the band's breakthrough hit, and includes many of their best reviewed songs and favorite concert standards today, including "Here Comes My Girl" (the third single release, charting at #59), "Even the Losers" and "Shadow of a Doubt (A Complex Kid)".

Damn the Torpedoes was a #2 hit (for seven weeks and kept from #1 by Pink Floyd's The Wall) on the Billboard's Pop Albums chart, and yielded two songs that made the top-fifteen on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, "Don't Do Me Like That" (#10) and "Refugee" (#15), both in early 1980.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 313 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Track Listing

1. "Refugee" (Campbell/Petty) – 3:22
2. "Here Comes My Girl" (Campbell/Petty) – 4:27
3. "Even the Losers" (Petty) – 4:01
4. "Shadow of a Doubt (A Complex Kid)" (Petty) – 4:25
5. "Century City" (Petty) – 3:45
6. "Don't Do Me Like That" (Petty) – 2:44
7. "You Tell Me" (Petty) – 4:35
8. "What Are You Doin' in My Life?" (Petty) – 3:27
9. "Louisiana Rain" (Petty) – 5:54

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