With its lush production and lyrics that evoke the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers' "Christmas All Over Again" sounds like it would be at home on Phil Spector's classic 1963 album, A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector. That's exactly what Petty had in mind for his contribution to A Very Special Christmas 2, the second album in A&M's series of holiday releases to benefit the Special Olympics. Petty's pal Jimmy Iovine, who co-produced the Heartbreakers' 1979 breakthrough, Damn The Torpedoes, had been trying to convince Petty to record a song for the project, and he finally agreed under the stipulation that he could write his own tune.
"I didn't want to do somebody else's song," Petty recalled in the liner notes to 1995's Playback. "To me and Mike [Campbell, lead guitarist] there's only one Christmas album in the pop field and that's Phil Spector's - that was the only one we could relate to. That really sounds like Christmas to me. So we thought we'd do something like that, eighteen guys, cut it all live."
To emulate Spector's signature, densely orchestrated Wall of Sound technique, Petty and Iovine put together an ensemble of musicians that included four acoustic guitarists, four saxophonists, two bassists, a harpist, a harpsichordist, a marimba player… and a partridge in a pear tree. Just kidding - there was also session drummer Jim Keltner joining the Heartbreakers' original stickman, Stan Lynch.
But it all started out simply on a ukulele. George Harrison gifted Petty the instrument and spent an afternoon teaching him the chords, and Petty brought it home with him to Florida to write the Christmas song. "The ukulele is a really cool instrument, even though it doesn't have that image," Petty noted on Playback.
ELO co-founder Jeff Lynne was a co-producer on the track. In addition to playing bass, bells, timpani, and singing background vocals, Lynne sneaked his way onto Petty's wishlist. When the singer requests a Chuck Berry songbook from Santa, Lynne quietly chimes in, "I'll have one of them."
Petty and Lynne were used to working together as they were bandmates in the supergroup Traveling Wilburys, and Lynne co-produced Petty's debut solo album Full Moon Fever (1989), as well as the Heartbreakers' 1991 album, Into The Great Wide Open.
This soundtracks a crucial moment in the 1992 movie Home Alone 2: Lost In New York. Thinking he's on a plane bound for Florida, Kevin McCallister listens to the tune on his headphones to avoid talking to a chatty, French-speaking passenger and misses the announcement that the plane is actually headed to New York.
It was also used in these movies:
Home Sweet Home Alone (2021)
Four Christmases (2008)
Jingle All The Way (1996)
And these TV shows:
The O.C. ("The Chrismukkah Bar Mitz-vahkkah" - 2005)
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers performed this at the White House for the A Very Special Christmas From Washington, D.C. TV special in 2000.
Like its 1987 predecessor, A Very Special Christmas 2 was a hit, selling more than 2 million copies in the US.
Petty's next project was the band's 1993
Greatest Hits album, which featured a new hit: "
Mary Jane's Last Dance."
This was covered by Darlene Love, Jon Bon Jovi, and Goo Goo Dolls.
