Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Damn the Torpedoes LP 1979 1st Pressing Refugee

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Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Damn the Torpedoes LP 1979 1st Pressing Refugee
When the first guitar strums of Refugee kicks off you know this is it a magic recording
  Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers delivered their breakthrough and arguably their masterpiece with Damn the Torpedoes. Musically, it follows through on the promise of their first two albums, offering a tough, streamlined fusion of the Stones and Byrds that, thanks to Jimmy Iovine's clean production, sounded utterly modern yet timeless. It helped that the Heartbreakers had turned into a tighter, muscular outfit, reminiscent of, well, the Stones in their prime -- all of the parts combine into a powerful, distinctive sound capable of all sorts of subtle variations. Their musical suppleness helps bring out the soul in Petty's impressive set of songs. He had written a few classics before -- "American Girl," "Listen to Her Heart" -- but here his songwriting truly blossoms. Most of the songs have a deep melancholy undercurrent -- the tough "Here Comes My Girl" and "Even the Losers" have tender hearts; the infectious "Don't Do Me Like That" masks a painful relationship; "Refugee" is a scornful, blistering rocker; "Louisiana Rain" is a tear-jerking ballad. Yet there are purpose and passion behind the performances that makes Damn the Torpedoes an invigorating listen all the same. Few mainstream rock albums of the late '70s and early '80s were quite as strong as this, and it still stands as one of the great records of the album rock era.

Damn the Torpedoes is the third studio album by the American rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, released on October 19, 1979. It was the first of three Tom Petty albums originally released by the Backstreet Records label, distributed by MCA Records. It built on the commercial success and critical acclaim of the band's two previous albums and reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart. The album went on to become certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Widely regarded as one of Petty's best albums, Damn the Torpedoes was ranked number 313 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" in 2003. It was moved up to number 231 in the 2020 revised list

The album was a breakthrough for Petty and the Heartbreakers. It was their first top 10 album, rising to No. 2 for seven weeks and kept from No. 1 by Pink Floyd's The Wall on the Billboard albums chart. Tom Petty's response to Westwood One about being anchored at No. 2 was "I love Pink Floyd but I hated them that year." It yielded two songs that made the top 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, "Don't Do Me Like That" (No. 10) and "Refugee" (No. 15).Thanks to the new co-producer Jimmy Iovine, Damn the Torpedoes proved to be a major leap forward in production