1979 Rock Classic, Originally Written for Another Band, Became a Career-Defining Single
When Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released "Don't Do Me Like That" in 1979, they never expected a track meant for another band to become one of their biggest hits on the charts.
The band had already released three albums by the late '70s and released hits like "American Girl" and "Breakdown." For their third album, Damn the Torpedoes, Petty had developed "Don't Do Me Like That" years prior when he was a part of the band Mudcrutch in 1974.
Petty recorded it as a demo and had originally intended for The J. Geils Band to record it, seeing as Petty and the Heartbreakers were the opening act for the band during their tour. They had released hits like "Must of Got Lost" and a cover of "Lookin' For A Love." Petty felt "Don't Do Me Like That" was better suited for The J. Geils Band, but they had turned it down. They had rejected the track, according to SongFacts, due to them already being too heavily involved in developing their next album.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Peter Wolf revealed that saying "no" to "Don't Do Me Like That" was a missed opportunity. He explains having gotten a call from producer Jimmy lovine's office to confirm his address and received a cassette with Petty's handwriting. The note from Petty read that Wolf's band "can really do something with it."
"It was in the midst of stuff. Maybe we thought we had the songs for our album: 'We can do it for the next one.' I called up Jimmy and, I think, Tom and said, 'Love the song. I'm not sure we're gonna get to it. But I do like the song.' Tom wasn't sure of it for himself for some reason. It was almost like, 'As soon as I finished writing it, I thought of sending it to you,'" said Wolf.
It was lovine that ended up convincing Petty that "Don't Do Me Like That" was meant for the Heartbreakers, and they ended up recording it for their next album. The track ended up becoming the biggest hit of their careers, landing at No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It later peaked at No. 3 when it was used in Stevie Nicks' track "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around."
Wolf looks back at the last conversation he had with the singer before his death, and "Don't Do Me Like That" came up. He had explained why he turned down the song, with Petty saying, "I gotta thank you for that. When you didn't end up doing it, everybody talked me into putting it on the record. And it became one of my big, big hits."
Related: 1974 Rock Ballad, Inspired by an Unconventional Love Story, Became a Soft Rock Anthem
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This story was originally published June 15, 2026 at 8:27 AM.