The sound of Damn The Torpedoes not only set a standard for Tom Petty, but for studio-recorded rock and roll albums ever after. The album was the first with co-producer Jimmy Iovine, by then gaining a reputation as something of a wunderkind following hugely successful albums with Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith. The litigious circumstances accompanying the album’s release are well known; Petty emerged the unlikely hero in a David and Goliath-style lawsuit against his record label and was even given his own subsidiary label, Backstreet Records, as part of the settlement. This narrative would naturally work its way into the defiant, dauntless songs on Damn The Torpedoes, Petty’s greatest album. Petty told Bogdanovich that the band “chased the perfect take with a level of obsession that [he has] never repeated,” and indeed, few rock and roll albums preceding Damn The Torpedoes sounded as big, punchy, or perfect. The album announces itself with the juggernaut that is “Refugee,” segues into the yowling “Here Comes My Girl,” and ups the ante with the anthemic “Even The Losers.” Damn The Torpedoes is chock full of mammoth riffs, telepathic band interplay, and unforgettable choruses, but its reputation deservedly rests on its thrilling first act. The album peaked at #2 on the Billboard chart, cock-blocked by The Wall, which only emphasizes its underdog status, as if to say “even the losers get lucky sometimes…but not that lucky.”