Something In The Air

Every now and again, a cover version appears that is a perfect marriage of a great song and the musician covering it. I'll take it further and say that were it not for the original artist having written and recorded it, that the cover artist could have done it themselves. Such is the case with Thunderclap Newman's "Something In The Air", rendered anew by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. But first, a bit of history.

John Keen, Pete Townshend, Andy Newman & Jimmy McCulloch

In 1969, Pete Townshend of The Who created a band to showcase songs written by former Who chauffeur, drummer/singer/guitarist John "Speedy" Keen, who had written the opening track on "The Who Sell Out" album, "Armenia City in the Sky". Townshend quickly began work on a single, playing bass guitar on it under the pseudonym Bijou Drains, and hiring Dixieland jazz pianist Andy "Thunderclap" Newman and fifteen-year-old guitarist Jimmy McCulloch (later of Paul McCartney's Wings) for the sessions.

Keen, Newman, and McCulloch likely met each other for the first time in January 1969, when they got together in Townshend's home studio to record the song that became "Something In The Air". Before then, Townshend had planned to work on projects for each of the musicians, but Who manager Kit Lambert prevailed upon Townshend, who was then working on what became the rock-opera "Tommy", to save time by coalescing the three musicians into the collective project that became Thunderclap Newman.

1969 UK single

Originally titled "Revolution", but later renamed because The Beatles had released a single of that name in 1968 (the B-side of "Hey Jude"), "Something In The Air" hit number one in the UK Singles Chart and stayed there for three weeks, holding off both Elvis Presley and The Beatles' "Ballad of John and Yoko" in the process. By December 1969, the single was awarded a gold record for worldwide sales of more than a million. Finally, an album, "Hollywood Dream", produced by Townshend and released in 1970, peaked in the Billboard album chart at #163.

"Something in the Air" appeared on the soundtracks of the films "The Magic Christian" and "The Strawberry Statement", the latter helping the single reach number 25 in the United States. The song also appeared in the 2004 deluxe edition reissue of the "Easy Rider" soundtrack CD. "Something In The Air" served as a memorable musical moment in the 2000 film "Almost Famous". It was also used in a 2008 television episode of "My Name Is Earl" and oddly, on an episode of the NBC sitcom, "Friends".

In 1993, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers released a greatest hits package to take up the slack between studio albums. To date, it has sold nearly 8 million copies in the U.S. alone and remains Petty's best selling album, which should tell you something. Two new tracks were included; the single "Mary Jane's Last Dance" and a full-on cover version of "Something In The Air". As I suggested earlier, had this tune not been written & recorded 24 years earlier, it sounds exactly like a tune Petty could have written, as it fits him perfectly.

Here's a live take of "Something In The Air" from Petty's "The Live Anthology" box set. The studio version is certainly strong enough, but it's great to hear The Heartbreakers pull this song off live so confidently. Props to keyboardist Benmont Tench for nailing the piano solo. Enjoy!

There's a whole lot of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers music available at Amazon. The "Hollywood Dream" album by Thunderclap Newman can be found there too, for a most reasonable fee.