Tom Petty's Early Years Arrive in a Five-Record Box Set

A box set collecting the early work of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers went out on Friday, 6 November. Billboard reported that the release, called Origins 1971-78, was co-produced by Adria Petty, the daughter of the late singer.

Tom Petty died in 2017, aged 66. The set marks 50 years since the band began, and it reaches back to the period before the Heartbreakers were a household name. It draws on country, rock, folk, punk and soul, according to the official Tom Petty store, and is described there as the comprehensive account of the band's early years.

The set includes new mixes of the 1978 album You're Gonna Get It! and of the band's self-titled debut material. It also carries a previously unreleased live recording, Live From the Record Plant 1977, and videos from the BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test in 1978. The store lists 51 tracks in total, 27 of them unreleased, live, extended or previously unheard.

Fans can buy the material in three formats. The main options are a 5LP box set of five 180-gram records, a 4CD box set, and an "Uber Deluxe" vinyl edition. The Uber Deluxe is a limited-edition configuration sold only through the Tom Petty store. The 5LP box set also comes with Punk to New Wave collector cards, a set of trading-style cards about the band's shift in sound.

Two of the collection's pieces are also being sold on their own. No Sleep Til L.A. gathers a dozen early tracks recorded between 1971 and 1977 by Mudcrutch, Tom Petty solo and the Heartbreakers. It is the first record in the 5LP box set. The Cut Out Bin EP adds five more early tracks from the project. Both releases will be issued as separate albums as well as in the box set. No Sleep Til L.A. is offered as a single LP, a CD, and a limited-edition Zoetrope vinyl pressing.

The band's drummer during this period was Stan Lynch, who played with the Heartbreakers from 1976 to 1994. His years with the group fall inside the set's span, and the collection is built around the years when the band was taking its shape.

For longtime listeners, the appeal is clear: a large group of material that was never on record before, alongside old studio work in new mixes. For newcomers, the set offers a single place to hear how the band sounded before its best-known records. Either way, the collection gives a fuller picture of a group that started out playing small rooms and ended up filling arenas.