Tom Petty Estate Unearths 1982 'Wild Thing' Performance Video

03-13-2025

(UMe) Over the last year the Tom Petty Estate has been opening their vault and sharing previously unreleased music and never-before-seen, newly remastered film from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' prolific 1982 to '83 era. Today, the Petty Legacy archives have released their latest unearthed musical treasure, a newly restored video of Petty and the Heartbreakers performing a rollicking cover of The Troggs' classic "Wild Thing" at the Los Angeles-based studio The Record Plant in 1982.

Directed by Justin Kreutzmann, the video, which boasts newly remastered audio, features footage of the band's performance at The Record Plant, filmed for the French TV program, "Houba Houba," alongside never-before-seen bonus footage originally captured by Cameron Crowe for his 1983 film, Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party.

The film has been restored and released for the first time in more than 40 years and is now streaming on Paramount+. The new clip follows The Record Plant videos of "Keeping Me Alive," "Finding Out" and "Stories We Could Tell."

"Wild Thing" is one of the many highlights from the recently released Deluxe Edition of Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers classic 1982 album, Long After Dark. The expanded album features the newly remastered original album from the original analog master tapes, plus 12 rediscovered bonus tracks newly mixed by Petty's longtime engineer Ryan Ulyate and includes packaging designed by GRAMMY Award-winning designer Jeri Heiden, liner notes by legendary rock journalist and Tom Petty Radio host David Fricke, with commentary from Jimmy Iovine and Cameron Crowe and iconic archival photographs by Dennis Callahan, Neil Preston and Aaron Rappaport. The set is available in a variety of configurations, highlighted by a limited edition TomPetty.com 2LP pressing on 180-gram red with black splatter color vinyl, housed in a numbered foil tip-on jacket with an exclusive lithograph.

In conjunction with the long-awaited release of Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party, Geffen/UMe has also just released the digital-only Heartbreakers Beach Party: The Soundtrack which includes 35 songs from the acclaimed film alongside tracks from Long After Dark (Deluxe Edition).