The Day Tom Petty, Alice Cooper and the Allmans Issued Key LPs
Into the Great Wide Open represented the merger of two worlds. He was coming off his biggest career success in 1989’s Full Moon Fever. The solo LP, created alongside producer Jeff Lynne, was recorded without Petty’s longtime backing band the Heartbreakers (save for Mike Campbell and the occasional guest appearance). Thanks to radio-friendly hits like “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” “Free Fallin’” and “I Won’t Back Down,” Full Moon Fever sold more than 5 million copies. "I didn't want to leave the Heartbreakers behind," Petty told Rolling Stone in 1991, "because I figured th...