Wildflowers (Tom Petty album)

Wildflowers is the second solo studio album by American musician Tom Petty, released on November 1, 1994. The album was the first released by Petty after signing a contract with Warner Bros. Records (where he had recorded as part of the Traveling Wilburys) and the first of three albums produced by Rick Rubin. The album was certified 3x platinum in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Four singles were released from the album between 1994 and 1995, the most successful of which, "You Don't Know How It Feels", reached #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Album Rock Tracks chart for one week.

The album features all members of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, with the exception of drummer Stan Lynch. Steve Ferrone plays drums on Wildflowers and would join the band officially the following year. However, the album was not credited to the Heartbreakers because, in Petty's words, "Rick (Rubin) and I both wanted more freedom than to be strapped into five guys." Freedom notwithstanding, Petty chose to use most of his regular band as session players, demonstrating his comfort with that format. Rolling Stone placed Wildflowers at number 12 on their list of the best albums of the 1990s. Guitar World placed the album at number 49 in their "Superunknown: 50 Iconic Albums That Defined 1994" list.

In April 2015, when Petty's back catalog was released in High-resolution audio, this was one of only two albums not included in the series (Songs and Music from "She's the One" was the other one), but a hi-res version was available on Pono Music.

Track listing
All songs written by Tom Petty, except where noted.
 * 1) "Wildflowers" – 3:11
 * 2) "You Don't Know How It Feels" – 4:49
 * 3) "Time to Move On" – 3:15
 * 4) "You Wreck Me" (Petty, Mike Campbell) – 3:22
 * 5) "It's Good to Be King" – 5:10
 * 6) "Only a Broken Heart" – 4:30
 * 7) "Honey Bee" – 4:58
 * 8) "Don't Fade on Me" (Petty, Campbell) – 3:32
 * 9) "Hard on Me" – 3:48
 * 10) "Cabin Down Below" – 2:51
 * 11) "To Find a Friend" – 3:23
 * 12) "A Higher Place" – 3:56
 * 13) "House in the Woods" – 5:32
 * 14) "Crawling Back to You" – 5:05
 * 15) "Wake Up Time" – 5:19

Outtakes

 * "Girl on LSD" was released as the B-side of the "You Don't Know How It Feels" single (1994).
 * "Leave Virginia Alone" was another song written and recorded during the sessions and left off the finished album. It was given to Rod Stewart for his album A Spanner in the Works (1995).
 * Several outtakes were included on the She's the One soundtrack album (1996).
 * In 2015, Petty released the track "Somewhere Under Heaven" as promotion for a 20th anniversary two-disc Wildflowers re-release, which has yet to materialize.
 * In 2018, outtake "Lonesome Dave," recorded July 23, 1993, was released on Petty's posthumous box set, "An American Treasure."

Personnel

 * Tom Petty – 12 and 6-string acoustic and electric guitars, bass, harmonica, piano, organ, vocals
 * Mike Campbell – 6 and 12-string guitars (electric, acoustic, slide), bass, harpsichord, coral sitar
 * Benmont Tench – harmonium, piano, organ, mellotron, orchestron, zenon
 * Howie Epstein – backing vocals; bass on "You Wreck Me", "Honey Bee" and "Cabin Down Below"
 * Steve Ferrone – drums, except on "To Find a Friend"
 * Lenny Castro – percussion


 * Additional musicians
 * Michael Kamen – orchestration, conductor on "Wildflowers", "Time to Move On", "It's Good to Be King" and "Wake Up Time"
 * Phil Jones – percussion on "You Wreck Me" and "Cabin Down Below"
 * Carl Wilson – backing vocals on "Honey Bee"
 * John Pierce – bass on "Hard on Me"
 * Ringo Starr – drums on "To Find a Friend"
 * Marty Rifkin – pedal steel guitar on "House in the Woods"
 * Jim Horn, Brandon Fields, Greg Herbig, Kim Hutchcroft – saxophones on "House in the Woods"