10 Artists That Went Head-To-Head With The Music Industry And WON
3. Tom Petty Vs MCA
Tom Petty showed up at MCAs door with a new album he felt was the best stuff hed recorded to date. As a member of the Heartbreakers hed already recorded a string of financially and critically successful albums, and since collaborating with the Traveling Wilburys (alongside Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan, George Harrison and Roy Orbison) he had some very influential friends.
Remarkably for a man whod only ever known success, the executives told him to come back when he could give them a hit.
Rather than re-record an album he felt was as good as he could do, he left it alone and did some work with the Wilburys. In 1989, after a change at the top of MCA, he returned and the album was accepted no changes were made. The rest of the story goes like this: the album sold 5 million copies, topped the charts and produced five singles Free Falling becoming his most recognisable song.
What do record companies know, anyway?