Watch Tom Petty And Stevie Nicks Cover ‘Needles And Pins’

Tom Petty had a wide spread of material in store for his first official live album, 1985’s Pack Up The Plantation: Live! It covered old and new Heartbreakers songs and even had room for his frequent collaborator, Stevie Nicks. The tried and tested potency of the duo led to the recording of a cover of “Needles and Pins”.

“Some of my best musical memories of her are sitting on the couch and just playing the guitar while she sings,” Petty shared to the Toronto Sun in 2014. In a conversation with Rolling Stone in 2017, Nicks said: “He gave me a lot of advice about stuff. He was the kind of person who said, ‘Here’s my advice. If you take it, great. If you don’t, that’s fine too.'”

Nicks initiated her working relationship with Petty in 1981 after wanting to sound like the Heartbreakers, contacting producer Jimmy Iovine for her very first Petty duet on “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” which was part of her solo debut, Bella Donna.

“I almost preferred the Heartbreakers’ music to Fleetwood Mac’s music at that point. So I called Jimmy Iovine and asked him if he would consider producing my first solo record. I thought maybe this is the way to get that Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers sound. And I wanted to be friends with Tom, and friends with the Heartbreakers,” said Nicks in the Runnin’ Down A Dream.

“Needles And Pins” was originally written by Sonny Bono and Jack Nitzsche, and was already covered by numerous artists like the Searchers and The Ramones but was first sung by Jackie DeShannon. This affinity with both male and female voices would become the basis of Petty and Nicks’ version.