Southern Accents

Southern Accents is the sixth album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, released in 1985.

The album’s first single, “Don’t Come Around Here No More”, cowritten by Dave Stewart of Eurythmics, peaked at #13 on the Billboard Hot 100. Its music video featured Alice in Wonderland imagery. “Southern Accents” was later covered by Johnny Cash for his Unchained album in 1996, on which members of the Heartbreakers play.

The recording sessions saw some tension between the band members, as each had a different vision for the album. Originally conceived as a concept album, the theme of “Southern Accents” became somewhat murky with the inclusion of three songs co-written by Stewart, and three other songs originally planned for the album left off. Songs cut from the track list include “Trailer,” “The Image of Me” and “The Apartment Song”. These can be found on Playback, a box set released 10 years later that included familiar songs with outtakes, b-sides and other rarities.

While mixing the opening track “Rebels” Petty became frustrated and punched a wall, severely breaking his left hand. Subsequent surgery on his hand left him with several pins, wires and screws to hold his hand together.