Flashback: Mudcrutch’s Early Version of ‘Don’t Do Me Like That’

When Mudcrutch broke up in 1975, they didn’t have much to show for their five years together. Despite gaining a cult following in their native Gainesville, Florida, and even signing to Shelter Records after moving to Los Angeles, the Tom Petty-led band didn’t even release anything besides two singles that completely flopped. They never got a chance to tour America, record an album or really get any sort of recognition.

Four years after their split, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers producer Jimmy Iovine was combing through the archives looking for a song to possibly use on the in-progress Damn the Torpedoes when he came across “Don’t Do Me Like That.” Recorded in Tulsa, Oklahoma shortly after Mudcrutch signed to Shelter, the song was quickly discarded because Petty felt it wasn’t up to snuff. But Iovine heard something in the tune and had the Heartbreakers re-cut it. It worked so well it became the first single from the album, and it became Petty’s first Top Ten hit. It’s also the closest thing Mudcrutch had to an actual hit. Check out their original version above.

In one of the most unlikely resurrections in rock history, Petty took Mudcrutch out of hibernation in 2008, and they released a new album and played a brief California club tour. They then went to sleep again until last year when they began work on their second album, which they are now supporting with their first cross-country tour. It took them a mere 46 years to make it happen.