A year after the music world was knocked back on its heels by the sudden death of Tom Petty, a few bands have released cover songs to commemorate Tuesday’s anniversary.
The Lumineers (of “Hey Ho” fame) released their cover of Petty’s “Walls,” with all proceeds from the song donated to MusiCares, a charity of the Recording Academy.
“Tom Petty is a musical hero of mine, and ‘Walls’ is such an incredible song,” Lumineers guitarist and lead vocalist Wesley Schultz said in a statement Tuesday. “When I got married, my wife walked down the aisle to the song.”
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart also announced Tuesday that the band is recording a full album cover of Tom Petty’s “Full Moon Fever,” his 1989 solo debut album, which featured signature songs such as “Free Fallin'” and “I Won’t Back Down.”
Though the cover album won’t be released until Oct. 26, the band released its version of Petty’s classic “Runnin’ Down a Dream.” The song is available to stream on SoundCloud.
“[Petty’s] greatness was that he didn’t seem to be too bothered if people thought he was great or not,” guitarist Kip Berman said in a statement. “What mattered to him was being part of a lineage of timeless rock songwriting.”
There is also new music from Petty and the Heartbreakers.
Monday saw the premiere of the video for Petty’s previously unreleased song “Gainesville.” The song debuted in September on “An American Treasure,” a 60-song compilation of previously unreleased recordings, alternate versions of classic songs, rarities, historic live performances and deep tracks from the artist’s archives.
“We can’t wait to share with Tom’s fans this musical portrait of an artist who deeply affected our culture and indelibly touched the lives of fans the world over,” Adria and Dana Petty, Tom’s daughter and wife, respectively, said of the collection in a statement on Monday.
