Tag Archives: Into the Great Wide Open

“Into the Great Wide Open” (Tom Petty Cover)

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By Jeremy Hammond:

My cover of “Into the Great Wide Open” by Tom Petty. I play the main verse pretty much the way Petty does, as far as I can hear.  I’ve re-arranged the chorus section a bit to try to closer mimic the multiple instrumental layers you hear on the album.

** EDITOR’S NOTE **

The title track to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ 1991 album of the same name, “Into the Great Wide Open” may not have topped the charts, but is an excellent song that deserves appreciation.  Even though it fell a full sixty-four slots shy of its predecessor “Learning to Fly,” Petty did manage to produce an outstanding music video for this song.  And it even starred a young Johnny Depp as Eddie Rebel with supporting roles by Chynna Phillips (of Wilson Phillips), and Matt LeBlanc (of Friends fame).

They truly don’t make music videos like this anymore, so if you haven’t seen it, you should really take the time to do so.  Go ahead, that’s what YouTube is for, right?

What makes “Into the Great Wide Open” such an excellent candidate for an acoustic cover?  Well, there’s the catchy, powerful acoustic strumming before the chorus, never mind the fact that this is certainly a song that comes across well when played with a minimal arrangement.

As per usual, Jeremy has demonstrated great taste and considerable ability in his performance of this Tom Petty classic.  I had forgotten how much I love this song and this album, and I’ve already watched Jeremy’s video several times over the past few days, enjoying this stripped down rendition.  On behalf of the Laptop Sessions, I thank Jeremy for yet another wonderful video.  Here’s to many more in 2010!

“Learning To Fly” (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers Cover)

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By Jeff Copperthite:

Good evening, and welcome to your Sunday edition of The Laptop Sessions. I’ve got another great song to add to our growing library, and it’s our 2nd song from Tom Petty.

From his 1991 album “Into the Great Wide Open”, the song I have performed is “Learning To Fly”. While simple, the song has been popular since the album’s release. The song has a great set of lyrics and is about a time that Tom saw an interview of a pilot, who said “Learning to fly is easy, but coming down is the hard part”, hence the chorus inspiration.

I hope that if you are in the CT area that you will come see me perform with Masters of the Universe this coming Wednesday! We are playing all kinds of songs and we had a practice session at my condo today. My fingers look like they are blowing bubbles, after practicing on the bass for 3 hours today w/ Chris, Jim, and Mike.

Stay tuned tomorrow for another great session by Jim.

Editor’s Note: Unfortunately, Jeff’s acoustic cover song music videos are no longer on YouTube, but we decided to keep his cover song blog posts up.  We figured these music blog entries would be good for posterity’s sake and because Jeff always gave such insightful posts each Session.  We hope to see Jeff’s impressive catalog of acoustic rock songs here on the Laptop Sessions cover songs and origianal music blog again in the future.  But, for now, please make sure to check-out hundreds of other acoustic cover songs from all of your favorite bands here on the Laptop Sessions music blog!