Tom Petty – Change Of Heart

This was the first Petty song that I learned on guitar. This song is not his best, but it hasn’t got the “Free Falling” treatment by being played every day. This song was on the album Long After Dark.

Long After Dark was Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ fifth studio album released in 1982. The band used MTV to push the band further into stardom, but Petty wasn’t exactly happy with the album. It was the third album produced by Jimmy Iovine, who made executive decisions pushing the album more into upbeat rock, but Petty wanted to include a couple more acoustic, ballad-type songs.

I could hear the band change a little with the song You Got Lucky… A Change of Heart peaked at #21 on the Billboard 100 and #36 in Canada…it was the second single released from the album.

The bass player Ron Blair quit after the last album Hard Promises was released. This is the first album that featured Howie Epstein on bass.  In the last couple of years of his first stint with the band, Blair was considering leaving and was not always available, thus being occasionally replaced with other bassists, including Donald “Duck” Dunn, on his last two albums. In spite of his departure in 1982, he would continue to make occasional guest appearances on studio albums all the way up to Southern Accents.

Epstein was fired in 2002 and then died in 2003 of a drug overdose. Ron Blair came back to his old position in 2002 and remained with the band until Petty passed away in 2017.

Ron Blair about quitting: “Some days I’ll think, ‘Couldn’t I have put up with it? At the time, it was really a gut decision. That’s kind of what I regret, that it wasn’t a real thought-out decision. I physically and verbally tuned out on an emotional level, rather than really thinking it out. Purely and simply it just ceased to be fun. 

Change Of Heart

Well I fought for youI fought too hardTo do it all again babe,It’s gone too far

You never needed meYou only wanted me aroundIt gets me down

There’s been a change,Yeah there’s been a change of heartSaid there’s been a changeYou push just a little too farYou make it just a little to hardThere’s been a change of heart

I’ll get over youIt won’t take longI’ve stood in yer gallerySeen what’s hangin’ from the wall

You were the moon and sun,Yer just a loaded gun nowIt gets me down

There’s been a change,Yeah there’s been a change of heartSaid there’s been a changeYou push just a little too farYou make it just a little to hardThere’s been a change of heart

Whoa yeah, oh boyLooks like we finally found the turning pointOh me, oh myLooks like it’s time for me to kiss it goodbye, yeah kiss it goodbye

There’s been a change,Yeah there’s been a change of heartSaid there’s been a changeYou push just a little too farYou make it just a little to hardThere’s been a change of heart

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball fan, old movie and tv show fan... and a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

35 thoughts on “Tom Petty – Change Of Heart”

  4. Why did you go for that tune to learn first of his ? You’re right, certainly not over-played, in fact I only vaguely remember it, even after giving it a listen now. To me, not one of his strong efforts but I don’t think he really put out any bad songs through the 80s, so you can’t go too far wrong.

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    1. One because it was simple…one of those 3 – 4 chord songs and our band sounded good doing it because it was easy to replicate…the second song we learned by him was Breakdown.
      I”m just odd lol…I liked it better than You Got Lucky. Petty really embraced MTV…the video to You Got Lucky had to be expensive to make…it really helped the album.

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      Reply

      1. Fair answer! I like ‘Breakdown’ quite a bit. I liked ‘You Got Lucky’ a good deal, it’s one of my maybe five or six favorites by him. I do remember seeing the video , on the late night shows before we got round-the-clock Much Music

        Liked by 1 person

      2. I know…read the comments…it’s great to me! He did have a big hit song off of this album called You Got Lucky that people liked better I think.

        Like

      1. Straight Into Darkness from the same record is even better IMO. I strongly dislike You Got Lucky though. 5 of my 10 favourite Petty cuts are from those 1979-1982 records – also Refugee, The Waiting, and Even the Losers.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. The Waiting is my top through that period…but I can’t argue with many of the others.
        You Got Lucky… it just didn’t hit me like it did other people at the time.

        Liked by 1 person

  12. Pingback: Tom Petty – Change Of Heart – MobsterTiger

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