On This Day, October 19, 1979: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers release their third album, ‘Damn the Torpedoes’

On This Day, October 19, 1979…

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released their third album, Damn the Torpedoes.

The record became their first top 10 album, peaking at #2. It featured the band’s first top 20 singles, “Don’t Do Me Like That,” which peaked at #10 and “Refugee,” which peaked at #15. Two other songs, “Here Comes My Girl” and “Even the Losers,” went on to become Petty classics.

The album’s title is a reference to an apocryphal quote by Admiral David Farragut, who, during a Civil War battle in 1864, allegedly said, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”