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In 1989, Tom Petty had an entire album rejected. All it took was one song to changed their mind
MCA initially rejected Tom Petty’s *Full Moon Fever*, saying it was too short and lacked a single. Petty added a cover of the Byrds’ “I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better”, which lengthened the album and helped satisfy the label.
The album had nine songs, and Petty said the growing popularity of CDs was one reason MCA wanted more material. He recalled being grateful for the Gene Clark song, while the article notes that several tracks from *Full Moon Fever* went on to become singles. Petty later alluded to the label’s demand for a hit in “Into the Great Wide Open”.
In short
- MCA rejected *Full Moon Fever* as too short and without a single.
- Petty added a Byrds cover to lengthen the nine-song album.
- He later referenced the label’s demand for a hit in a song.
Explained simply
Tom Petty was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who first became widely known with his band the Heartbreakers. By the late 1980s, he was also making records under his own name, including Full Moon Fever, released in 1989.
Record labels decide whether to release and promote an album, and they often look for songs they think could attract a wide audience. At the time, CDs were becoming more popular and could hold more music than a typical record, changing expectations about how much material an album should contain.
“I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better” was written by Gene Clark and first recorded by the Byrds, an American band whose music influenced Petty. The story illustrates how a label’s commercial expectations could shape an album, even when the artist had already chosen its songs.