WaterTower Music have announced the October 4th release for the soundtrack to the Apple TV+ series Bad Monkey. Based on Carl Hiaasen’s 2013 comic crime novel of the same name, the series is set in the Florida Keys so the producers sensibly thought to incorporate the music of one of Florida’s most famous musical exports Tom Petty.
In an interview with Vulture, the show’s music supervisor Tony Von Pervieux says the original plan was to include 10 Petty covers but that ballooned to 21, and all the artists they reached out to were quick to jump on board. “It was the easiest sell to say, ‘Hey, we have this cool show and really cool experience to do a cover. This is the specific way I want this cover to be done based on the scene,’” he says. “And they were all like, ‘Yeah, of course. We’re huge Tom Petty fans. You don’t have to explain.’”
It’s not the first time Bad Monkey’s showrunner Bill Lawrence has highlighted his Petty fandom, naming all 102 episodes of his 2009 comedy Cougar Town after different Tom Petty songs.
While the full soundtrack will be available in October, following each episode new covers are released to streaming including Eddie Vedder (“Room at the Top”), Larkin Poe (“Runnin’ Down a Dream”), Fitz and The Tantrums (“Even the Losers”) and most recently Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit (“You’re Gonna Get It”). Other notable covers include Sharon Van Etten (I Won’t Back Down”), The War On Drugs (“You Wreck Me””) and Kurt Vile (“Sins of My Youth”).
In other Tom Petty news, 18 October will see a deluxe edition release of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers 1982 album Long After Dark. Boasting 12 re-discovered tracks, including 7 previously unreleased songs. Notable highlights include Tom’s version of “Never Be You”—which was a #1 country hit for Rosanne Cash—“Don’t Make Me Walk the Line,” and an up-tempo version of “Ways To Be Wicked,” which was recently covered by Margo Price with Mike Campbell for the Petty Country tribute album. There are also a number of songs taken from 1982-83 French TV sessions, including acoustic gems, “Turning Point” and the Everly Brothers influenced “Keeping Me Alive.”
As part of the lead-up to the Long After Dark release, the Tom Petty estate will be opening their Archives to share previously unseen and newly remastered film and audio from 1982 – 1983, beginning with a new video by award-winning director Alan Bibby for the French TV version of “Straight Into Darkness”