While 2017 has not matched 2016 in terms of unexpected deaths of major rock artists, it has already seen a few significant ones, including Chuck Berry. This past month two more big names were added to the list, Tom Petty and Fats Domino. Fats Domino's death, like Chuck Berry's, can't be considered untimely like so many from last year, as he was 89 years old, but it is still a
major loss, and Petty's death has to be considered somewhat premature, as he was only in his sixties. In both cases, I only own a "best of" compliation, so I can't really do a comprehensive overview of their careers. Instead, I'll briefly note some of my favorites among their hits, and a few less well known tracks or side projects from each that I also like.
I started off my 3 CD rock and roll compilation from many years back with a Fats Domino song, "The Fat Man". This is considered one of the foundational tracks for rock and roll, with good reason (though the song it was based on, "Junker's Blues", is great too, and has arguably even more entertaining lyrics). Other tracks I included were "Goin' Home", "Ain't That A Shame", "I'm In Love Again", "Blueberry Hill", "Blue Monday", "I'm Ready", and "Walking to New Orleans". In fact, only Chuck Berry had more songs on that set. I'd probably pick "Ain't That A Shame" as the greatest of his original songs, though "I'm In Love Again", "Blue Monday", "I'm Ready" and "Walking to New Orleans" (largely the work of Robert Charles Guidry aka Bobby Charles) are all strong contenders ("Blueberry Hill", a favorite of many fans, is actually a cover of a song dating to 1940, though Domino's version is now pretty universally considered definitive). Most of his original songs were collaborations, mostly with his producer Dave Bartholomew, but he was given sole credit for a few songs, including the early hits "Every Night About This Time" and "Please Don't Leave Me", as well as the later "I Want to Walk You Home", all excellent pieces of work. Domino also played a vital role in the Lloyd Price classic "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", on which he played piano (the song itself was based on "Junker's Blues" via Domino's "The Fat Man"). As for Domino's later career, I don't know much from it, but I am a big fan of his covers of two songs by favorite artists of mine. One is the Beatles' "Lady Madonna", which Domino covered not long after it first came out (it was his last chart hit). Paul McCartney wrote the song largely as a tribute to Domino, so it's not surprising that his version sounds great. The other is Randy Newman's "Have You Seen My Baby", a song which is also very well suited to Domino and his rollicking piano. His version of the song is great, possibly even better than Ringo Starr's somewhat later but perhaps better known version, though I'd have trouble choosing between them. Of course Domino's influence on the music that came after him is also reflected in all the covers of his classic songs that have been performed since, though few of them can match the originals.
Among the Tom Petty songs (most released with his band the Heartbreakers, though a few were in his name alone) that I'm particularly fond of are "Breakdown", "I Need to Know", "Refugee", "Don't Do Me Like That", "Don't Come Around Here No More", "I Won't Back Down", "Runnin' Down a Dream", "Free Fallin'", "Learning to Fly", "Into the Great Wide Open" and "Mary Jane's Last Dance". His duet with Stevie Nicks, "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around", is pretty good too. A highlight of Petty's career was his participation in the Traveling Wilburys, a supergroup that originally came together to record a George Harrison B-side; the record company, in this case quite wisely, decided that the resulting "Handle with Care" was much to good to waste as a mere B-side, so a whole album was recorded. Petty's most notable contribution was "Last Night", which he sang lead on and probably was the main writer of. Another track he seems to have been the main writer for was "Margarita", which he and Bob Dylan sang lead on. If I were to put together my own Tom Petty compilation, I'd probably put these two songs, or at least "Last Night", on it.
It's amazing to think that of the five Wilburys, only Bob Dylan and Jeff Lynne are still alive now; Roy Orbison of course being the first to die, just after the release of the first Wilburys album (his guitar stood in for him in the video for the second single, "End of the Line"). After Petty died, I thought it might be interesting to put together some sort of Wilburys compilation
or list. Unfortunately, since I don't have the second Wilburys album, I would have trouble doing it properly. But it occurred to me that a comprehensive retrospective on the Traveling Wilburys could be expanded beyond the two albums released by the supergroup to include Wilbury related tracks that weren't released under the group name. Of course each individual Wilbury had a huge catalog of classic songs, so it would be hardly be practical to include all of their solo careers. But in the years around the time the group was in existence, there were many songs written or recorded by two or more members of the group that appeared on their solo albums from that period. Petty in particular had quite a few such tracks, because Lynne co-produced two albums of his, playing on all the tracks and co-writing a bunch of the songs, including the aforementioned "I Won't Back Down", "Runnin' Down a Dream", "Free Fallin'", "Learning to Fly" and "Into the Great Wide Open". "I Won't Back Down" in particular was practically a Wilbury song, as George Harrison played guitar and sang backing vocals on it. Other Wilbury crossovers include the George Harrison album Cloud Nine, which Lynne co-produced and played on; two singles from the album, "This Is Love" (the song that "Handle With Care" was originally intended as a B-side to) and the brilliant "When We Was Fab", were co-written by Harrison and Lynne. Another Harrison track which involved multiple Wilburys was "Cheer Down". Lynne co-produced and played on the track, and Petty helped Harrison write the lyrics, though he didn't play on it. Several tracks from Roy Orbison's posthumous album Mystery Girl also involved two or more Wilburys. Lynne produced three songs on the album; one was co-written by Orbison and Lynne, and two ("You Got It" and "California Blue") by Orbison, Lynne and Petty, with all three playing on them. While I haven't heard "California Blue", "You Got It" was a hit and there's a video (apparently from a special on the Wilburys) with narration from Tom Petty showing clips from the recording of the song. Depending on how broadly you define a Traveling Wilbury related track - for instance
whether it's enough for two of the group to have written and recorded the song together, or whether there should be three of them involved - you could have either several great bonus tracks or an entire extra album of Traveling Wilbury music to go alongside the recordings they released as a group.
