On October 20, 2020, Tom Petty would have turned 70 years old. To mark the occasion, a bunch of artists got together to participate in a livestream event in honor of the late rock icon. Among those artists was Spoon, who performed “Breakdown” and “A Face In The Crowd.” Those recordings weren’t made publicly available anywhere, but now the band has decided to share them.
Shortly after Petty’s death in 2017, Daniel told Stereogum of “A Face In The Crowd,” “Divine Fits played ‘You Got Lucky’ at just about every gig we had. What an insane single. It’s got an intense lyric and the most powerful, creepy guitar riff and somehow [Dan Boeckner] was able to tap into that attitude every time. It was the greatest feeling in the world to be in a band that could play that song and pull it off. But since yesterday the song I keep playing is ‘A Face In The Crowd,’ a ballad that came out as I was graduating high school and leaving my hometown and most of the people I knew forever. I relive that moment in the song. The minor chords, the vocal, the melody — all haunting and timeless.
Listen to Spoon’s covers of “Breakdown” and “A Face In The Crowd” above and revisit out ranking of Petty’s best songs here.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.