Since actor-director Ed Burns is celebrating a birthday today, I am totally using it as an excuse to look at the music from his second film, 1996's She's the One, and the reason why is an obvious one: because the entire score and soundtrack was provided by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
After a chance encounter with Burns, Petty told him he had a couple of songs the director might want to consider for use in his next project. Burns, naturally, jumped at the opportunity and instead suggested Petty and the band do the whole thing.
Petty later said of Burns:
"I liked him a lot. You know, he’s a, he’s a very talented writer and actor, director, but also a good guy who had a sense of music... (and) who really did me a great service by giving me all the freedom, he gave me the creative, the complete creative freedom and, and actually sat with me as we were scoring the film, and uh, saved me immense amounts of time.”
So Petty went on to create the entire soundtrack, filling in a few spots with songs that hadn’t made the cut for his Wildflowers solo album two years earlier.
There are also excellent covers of Lucinda Williams' "Change the Locks", as well as Beck's "A**hole."
Interestingly, this is the only Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers album to not feature an "official" drummer. Longtime drummer Stan Lynch had left the band in 1994, so Curt Bisquera plays the drums on most of the album, with Ringo Starr sitting in on "Hung Up and Overdue." (An uncredited George Harrison also joins his former Beatle bandmate, supplying slide guitar.) Steve Ferrone would play on two of the songs and not long after would be named the new official Heartbreakers drummer.
The Beach Boys' Carl Wilson also contributed gut string guitar and backing vocals, while Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham lent his voice to three of the tunes— including today's SoundTRAX selection.
There are two versions of the song, including a faster, alternate version that is parenthetically labeled as "(#3)." But it's the one with "(Circus)" that's my favorite.
From She's the One, it's Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers with "Walls."
