Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ fifth studio album Long After Dark landed with a series of firsts for the band. It was the first to feature bassist and backing vocalist Howie Epstein, replacing Ron Blair. It also marked a new visual period for a band that reluctantly embraced music videos.
Long After Dark arrived a year after the launch of MTV. The music channel helped the band’s single “You Got Lucky” become a hit in 1982 with a thematic video that set the standard for how rock bands used the era’s most powerful marketing tool. Though it wasn’t their first video, the cinematic treatment was groundbreaking and reportedly impressed even Michael Jackson.
Thanks to the video’s success, fans began stopping Petty on the streets. “That was when we really saw MTV change our daily lives,” Petty said. He had used his discomfort in front of the camera and successfully turned it into an endearing on-screen persona.
But “You Got Lucky” isn’t your typical Tom …