Liner Notes · No. 029
"Don't Come Around Here No More" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: the B-side
Quick hall pass: the video that served Alice as dessert got a second life on a Marvel show, closed out a legend's last concert, and brought a keyboard player back for a new version. Here's the B-side.
On this record
TRACK 1 · The cameo
Legion turned it into industrial dread
In 2018, Legion's showrunner sang a Nine Inch Nails-style cover himself. Forty years on, people still pause the original on the cake.
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The superhero show: In 2018, Season 2 of FX's Marvel series Legion used a cover made in-house. Series creator Noah Hawley sang lead, and composer Jeff Russo played everything else, including a Moog IIIc synthesizer. When the TV showrunner is also your lead singer, you know the budget meeting went great.
The sound: One review compared it to Fragile-era Nine Inch Nails. The original had a Mad Hatter. This one sounds like the Mad Hatter's basement. It came out on It's Always Blue: Songs from Legion (Lakeshore Records, August 17, 2018).
The hall of fame for videos: American Songwriter lists it among the five most iconic classic rock music videos, and Consequence gave it the full annotated treatment. Forty years on, people are still pausing on the cake.
That's the screen. Now prove you were paying attention. Quiz time.
Which superhero TV show used a cover of "Don't Come Around Here No More" in 2018?
No Googling. We'll know.
That's Side A. Flip the tape.
Side B is where it gets weird:
- The 1985 concert film, the 1993 hometown show, the last concert, and a Fleet Foxes tribute.
- The covers: Fig Dish, Dave Stewart covering himself, Legion, and Rhiannon Giddens with Benmont Tench.
- Where they are now: the Heartbreakers back on a stage in 2026, and a box set of the early years.
Free, every Tuesday. One song, the story you never heard, and a 10-minute hall pass from the doomscroll. Already subscribed? Enter your email to unlock.
▶ SIDE B
TRACK 2 · The live one
The concert film, the hometown show and the last night
It played the 1985 concert film, the 1993 hometown show and Tom Petty's final concert in 2017. Fleet Foxes played it days after he died.
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1985, the tour: The song went out on the Southern Accents tour. It made the concert film Pack Up the Plantation, released on home video in 1986, but not the live album of the same name, which came out November 25, 1985, mostly recorded at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles. Somewhere a VHS tape in your parents' basement has the better tracklist.
1993, the homecoming: On November 4, 1993, setlist.fm lists it at the band's show at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center in Gainesville, Florida, Petty's hometown. A sitar song for the home crowd. Bold.
2017, the last night: On September 25, 2017, the Heartbreakers closed their 40th-anniversary tour at the Hollywood Bowl. It was Tom Petty's final concert. "Don't Come Around Here No More" was the eighth song, after "Breakdown" and before "It's Good to Be King." Petty died a week later.
2017, the tribute: Days after his death, Fleet Foxes, on tour, played it as their first encore at the Chicago Theatre, a quiet folk arrangement sung by Robin Pecknold.
TRACK 3 · Cover watch
The covers (the co-writer did one)
Flannel, the co-writer with an orchestra, the Legion dread and Rhiannon Giddens with a Heartbreaker on keys. Play them, then vote.
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- 1994 · Fig Dish. An alt-rock band's take on a 1994 Tom Petty tribute album. Flannel, meet sitar.
- 2008 · Dave Stewart & His Rock Fabulous Orchestra. The co-writer covered his own song. Most people hum their own songs in the shower. He brought an orchestra.
- 2018 · Noah Hawley & Jeff Russo. The Legion version from Track 1. Grim, industrial, and probably not a wedding song.
- 2024 · Rhiannon Giddens, featuring the Silkroad Ensemble and Benmont Tench. Giddens is artistic director of Silkroad, the collective Yo-Yo Ma founded, and Tench is the Heartbreakers' own keyboard player. A Heartbreaker on a cover of a Heartbreakers song. That's not a cover. That's a family reunion.
▶ WATCH THE CONTENDERS
Battle of the versions: which "Don't Come Around Here No More" wins?
Cast your vote. Results in the next issue. Choose carefully: we're judging you.
TRACK 4 · Where are they now
Where the Heartbreakers are now
In 2026 the Heartbreakers played in full under that name for the first time since Petty's death. A 50th-anniversary box is due November 6.
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The band: On September 16, 2026, original Heartbreakers Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, Stan Lynch and Ron Blair opened the 25th Americana Honors & Awards at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, with Chris Stapleton singing "American Girl" and "Breakdown." Steve Ferrone and Scott Thurston joined them for "You Wreck Me." Rolling Stone called it the first time the band had performed in full under the Heartbreakers name since Petty's death. That night they also received a Lifetime Achievement Award.
The vault: The Petty estate's 50th-anniversary box, Origins 1971-1978, is due November 6, 2026: four CDs or five LPs, plus Blu-ray and DVD, with the first two albums remastered and unreleased recordings. Earlier this summer the estate put out extended archival versions of "American Girl" and "Breakdown." Your 1977 self would have worn the grooves off all of it.
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