Listen To Tom Petty Cover “Call Me the Breeze” In Fillmore Show

Back in 1997, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers set up shop for a 20-night run at the legendary Fillmore in San Francisco. It was a career-defining stretch filled with classics, deep cuts, and a whole lot of musical exploration. One standout from those shows? Their high-energy take on JJ Cale’s “Call Me the Breeze,” recorded live on February 6.

Now, that performance is finally getting its moment in the spotlight as part of a box set dropping on November 25. The animated music video for the song adds a fun visual twist to the laid-back groove of the original track.

The Fillmore Vibe

Tom Petty knew the Fillmore was the perfect place to try something different. “I thought the Fillmore would be the best place to do it, because the audience here is much more forgiving in as far as letting you experiment – and it proved true,” he said in 1999. “They just went with us, to the point that we got very comfortable over that long run. I think the long run was a great idea because we weren’t promoting anything, and we had no reason to do it other than we wanted to do it.”

That freedom led to some incredible live recordings – 115 of them, to be exact.

Finding the Magic

While Petty had hoped to release some of these tracks back in 2005, the idea didn’t fully take off until this year. Mike Campbell, Heartbreakers guitarist, helped sift through the recordings to find the gems. Campbell explained:

“If the vocal is not perfect, you skip over it, because if the vocal ain’t good, nothing else will matter.
“No matter how good the band plays, if the singing isn’t right in the magic zone, there’s no point mixing it. So we’d listen closely to the vocal. If Tom was right on the money on that take, we’d work and finish it. He was pretty consistent, actually. He was good on most of the stuff.”

Looks like Tom’s magic is still going strong – even decades later.

Enjoy watching the video clip below: