On Friday, the new Tom Petty compilation The Best Of Everything – The Definitive Career Spanning Hits Collection was released. In honor of the sprawling greatest hits album that features two previously unreleased songs, Jim James has shared a cover of “Breakdown.”
The My Morning Jacket frontman radically rearranged the track from Petty & The Heartbreakers’ 1976 self-titled debut album turning into a haunting, psychedelic-tinged dirge. Along with the video that James posted to YouTube he shared the following thought about Petty:
my morning jacket were lucky enough to open for tom petty years ago and every night i would stand there in awe and watch them wondering how it was possible that one man could write so many hit songs, and not only were they hit songs, but they were actually GREAT songs too! tom’s music is something we humans are lucky to have floating out there in such a major way in our lives. its always so nice when you hear tom’s voice somewhere unexpectedly- its like running into an old friend. he seemed like a nice person, i wish we could have made some music together. thanks for the music tom, here is a tribute version of one of my all time faves!
Watch Jim James perform “Breakdown” below:
