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Don't Do Me Like That
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Tom Petty

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Date Performance 1974-00-00
Running Time 2:47
Performers Tom Petty (Vocal), Tom Petty (Guitar), Mike/Michael Campbell (Lead Guitar), Ben(mont) (M.) Tench(, III) (Piano), Randall Marsh (Drums), Charlie Souza (Bass Guitar), Denny Cordell (Produced By), Roger Harris (Engineered By), Tom Russell (Mixed By)
Comments(Mudcrutch Version) Recorded and mixed at: Shelter Church Studio, Tulsa, OK. Recorded in Hollywood, just after Danny Roberts left Mudcrutch and Charlie Sousa joined. It's strange to find out that a song that seemed on Damn the Torpedoes to be about the strains of getting famous ("If you were in the public eye...") turns out to have been written before anyone outside of Florida had ever heard of Tom Petty. "The public eye could have been just walking down the main street of Gainesville," Ben says. "Tom just came in and played it on the piano. I played what he had played. I thought it was a great song. I remember when they sent us on tour to promote 'Depot Street' or something, we played a few gigs here and there in New Orleans and we'd go down to radio stations in the area and play them our tape of 'Don't Do Me Like That.' Then Mudcrutch went out with a whimper, and the song just went away. "During Damn the Torpedoes one of us said, "Oh come on, lets play 'Don't Do Me Like That'" and we did it once. Tom was like, 'Nah that's old.' I think Iovine heard it and got excited. Rightly so. That was just a lot of fun. It still is. But I don't know any better than to be twenty years old and we've just been signed to a record label but we don't know when the record's going to come out and we're completely disorganized and confused and Tom comes in and sits down at the piano and goes, 'Well I got this one' and plays 'Don't Do Me Like That.'"
Appears On
Playback (1995)
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

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Running Time 2:43
Performers Tom Petty (Lead Vocal), Tom Petty (Lead Guitar), Mike/Michael Campbell (Guitar), Ben(mont) (M.) Tench(, III) (Piano), Ben(mont) (M.) Tench(, III) (Vox Organ), Ron Blair (Electric Bass Guitar), Stan Lynch (Drums), Tom Petty (Produced By), Jimmy Iovine (Produced By), Shelly Yakus (Engineered By), Shelly Yakus (Mixed By)
CommentsRecorded at: Sound City, Van Nuys, CA and Cherokee Studios, Hollywood, CA. Mixed at: Cherokee Studios, Los Angeles, CA (MCA Records) A Mudcrutch version is included elsewhere in this set. This is the Torpedoes take which was the Heartbreakers first big AM hit. "I wrote that in California," Petty says. "I didn't own a piano so I rented this rehearsal hall, a cheap little dingy place that had a piano, and I went down to write a song. I didn't really want to deal with the Mudcrutch songs after the band broke up. During Damn the Torpedoes we played it a couple of times and then completely ignored it. We never thought anything of it until we were wrapping the album and this second engineer, Tori Swenson, said, 'Look, I know I'm out of line speaking up but you know that "Don't Do Me Like That" song? I really think you should play that again.' Everyone just stared at him. It was a pretty bold thing to say. He said, 'Just put the tape on.' All of a sudden people were saying, 'Yeah, it sounds pretty good,' and Iovine said, 'I think it fits in.' I was really shocked when it was the first single off the record and a big hit because I thought it really misrepresented the album. Here we had a hit and it was the wrong one! But it all worked out."
Appears On
Playback (1995)
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

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    Last Modified »
2008-08-18