Damn the Torpedoes is the third album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released in 1979 by MCA Records. It was released to commercial success and critical acclaim becoming the band's breakthrough album. In 2003, the album was ranked number 313 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Background and Recording
Damn the Torpedoes was the Heartbreakers first for MCA Records. Their old label, Shelter, had been sold to MCA. Petty struggled to legally detach himself from MCA, resulting in his bankruptcy. In the end the record company backed down, and he negotiated a deal that allowed him to release his recordings on the new Backstreet Records label, manufactured and distributed by MCA. The album was recorded at Sound City in Van Nuys and Cherokee Studios in Hollywood. The title is a reference to a famous quote by Admiral David Farragut: "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!".
Release and Reception
Damn the Torpedoes was released in October 1979. The album was a breakthrough for Petty and the Heartbreakers. It was his first top 10 album rising to #2 (for seven weeks and kept from #1 by Pink Floyd's The Wall) on the Billboard albums chart. It yielded two songs that made the top-fifteen on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, "Don't Do Me Like That" (#10) and "Refugee" (#15). It was a commercial success as well. Thanks to the new co-producer Jimmy Iovine, Damn the Torpedoes proved to be a major leap forward in production. The album was digitally remastered and reissued by Joe Gastwirt in 2001.
2010 re-release
On November 9, 2010, a deluxe edition of the album was released on three formats, a two-CD set, a two-LP (180g) deluxe package and a Blu-Ray Audio disc package. All the tracks (original and unreleased) were remastered from the original analog master tapes by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering Studios in Hollywood, CA.