THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Over four decades after its debut, a deluxe edition of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ groundbreaking but often overlooked 1982 album Long After Dark has arrived — expanded with a wealth of previously unreleased rarities and extras endorsed by Petty himself.
“There was some music recorded for Long After Dark that didn’t get on the record, that I thought would’ve made it a better album,” the legendary rocker said years ago in an interview. “I left off… four things that I liked quite a bit. And probably a few more written that never even got in the door.” Looking back on their third and final album together, legendary producer Jimmy Iovine reflects: “Long After Dark, we thought we had it. Sounded like Positively Fourth Street, sounded like one of those records, you know. By the way, I think it is!”
Despite it being a golden era of The Heartbreakers playing at the height of their powers, Long After Dark is widely known as the band’s most misunderstood and underrated success. The album features an edgy collection of rock ballads and guitar anthems backed by the unmistakable sound of the band, including founding members Mike Campbell (lead guitar), Benmont Tench (keyboards), Stan Lynch (drums), plus the new addition of Howie Epstein on bass and backing vocals.
Long After Dark’s Deluxe Edition will feature the songs that were lost in the debate over the album’s original direction. Notable highlights include finding Petty’s version of Never Be You — a No. 1 country hit for Rosanne Cash — pop anomaly Don’t Make Me Walk the Line, and an up-tempo version of Ways To Be Wicked, previously covered by Lone Justice, recorded at Applewood Studios in Denver. Many of the additional tracks are taken from French TV sessions, including acoustic gems Turning Point and the Everly Brothers-influenced Keeping Me Alive.
Long After Dark was a smash by the usual standards — Top 10 in Billboard, certified gold — and spawned three fan favorites: You Got Lucky, Change of Heart and Straight Into Darkness. Still, it remains an unsung gem amongst its predecessors, Damn the Torpedoes and Hard Promises. “It’s a good little rock ’n’ roll record” but also “a tough record because I never knew if we were making the right decisions about songs,” Petty shared in Paul Zollo’s interview anthology, Conversations With Tom Petty.
The Long After Dark Deluxe Edition features the newly remastered original album from the original analog master tapes, plus a dozen rediscovered bonus tracks newly mixed by Petty’s longtime engineer Ryan Ulyate. It boasts packaging designed by Grammy-winning designer Jeri Heiden, liner notes by rock journalist David Fricke, commentary from Iovine and Cameron Crowe, and archival photographs by Dennis Callahan, Neal Preston and Aaron Rapoport.”
