The music industry is full of “shoulda, coulda, woulda’s” when it comes to accepting and recording future smash successes, and the same is true for the Don Henley hit that was written for Tom Petty but that Petty ultimately rejected. As always, hindsight is 20/20.
Moreover, Petty wasn’t the only one who inadvertently helped shape this nostalgic rock track into what we know and love today. According to producer and engineer Niko Bolas, Bob Seger helped, too.
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The Don Henley Hit Written for Tom Petty
While on an episode of The Howard Stern Show, Don Henley revealed that Tom Petty’s lead guitarist, Mike Campbell, had originally written “Boys of Summer” for the Heartbreakers frontman. For whatever reason, Petty rejected the track, which Campbell had cut in his home studio.
Henley said that after Petty passed on the track, Campbell sent the instrumental track to him. Inspired by nostalgia, summertime, and a little bit of baseball, Henley wrote the now-iconic lyrics to “Boys of Summer” about empty roads, streets, and Deadhead stickers on a Cadillac.
Although it’s fun to imagine what Tom Petty might’ve sounded like on the hit track, the rejection ended up being a blessing in disguise for Henley. “Boys of Summer” reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed at the top of the Billboard Hot Rock Tracks chart for weeks. Two years after its October 1984 release, Henley won a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance.
Campbell later recalled hearing the song on the radio while sitting in the car with Petty. He tried to change the dial so as not to upset the musician, but another station was playing the same track. “Boy, you know, you were really lucky with that,” Campbell said Petty told him. “I wish I would have had the presence of mind to not let that get away.”
Bob Seger Also Played a Part in Shaping “Boys of Summer”
According to Niko Bolas, in an episode of Inside Blackbird, Henley’s team cut, mixed, and pressed the track when Bob Seger visited the studio. “Everybody’s having drinks and celebrating, the record’s almost over, and Bob looked at Don and said, ‘That’s a great record. Why didn’t you sing it higher? Chicks love it when you sing high,’” Bolas recalled. “You could have heard a pin drop.”
“Don looked at me and said, ‘What can we do?’” Bolas said. Using an AMS microprocessor with a harmonizer, Bolas recorded multiple cassettes of the instrumental multi-track in different keys. Bolas and Henley spent the next weekend rehearsing “Boys of Summer” in multiple keys until he found a vocal range that felt the most powerful.
“Henley’s the kind of singer that can really do that,” Bolas said. “Monday came back to the studio, I played the cassette copy of the pitch he liked, and I found out what the key was for that. We recut the whole thing, re-sang it that week, re-mixed it, and still made the release date. I still hear it on the radio, and I still smile.”
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