10 Bands That Ripped Off Themselves
4. All the Wrong Reasons - Tom Petty
Tom Petty seemed to be on Cloud Nine at the start of the '90s. After making some of the greatest heartland rock of the '80s, he shacked up with Jeff Lynne for a few weeks to create the solo smash Full Moon Fever, which yielded some of the greatest hits of his career, from Free Fallin' to Runnin Down a Dream. While it would have been fine to have an album like that in your discography, there was a bit of musical deja vu once the Heartbreakers were brought back into the mix.
As an album, Into the Great Wide Open almost has the ability to surpass Petty's first solo joint, from the weightless Learning to Fly to the blunt criticism of fame on the title track. On the other hand, in the middle of the record All the Wrong Reasons arrives, sounding like a slice of life in between the speakers. The acoustic guitars send you reeling , as Petty starts to wax poetic about people down on their luck choosing to go down fighting.
Nothing too wrong with that synopsis... other than the music is a copy and paste of Free Fallin'. Though there have been some improvements made in the lyrical department, the same key, tempo, and general song construction makes this sound like Petty trying to capture lightning in a bottle again, with even some of the Heartbreakers jokingly calling it "ReFallin." There is a lot of stuff that this song does right... even if it had to take a few cues from its musical older brother.