In 1978, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released the song “Listen to Her Heart.” The second single from the band’s sophomore album, You’re Gonna Get It, was a moderate hit, peaking at No. 59 on the Billboard Hot 100 on Oct 21, 1978. And while it ultimately became a classic rock radio staple, it could have been a bigger hit at the time of its release.
According to Ultimate Classic Rock, ahead of its release, Petty was asked by his record company to change one of the lines in the song, but refused, which “meant the song got less airplay” on the radio, most notably AM stations.
In a 1978 interview with Rolling Stone, Petty revealed that he was asked to change the song’s opening line, "You think you're gonna take her away/With your money and your cocaine,” to “with your money and your champagne.” He took issue with the change because he felt it didn’t make sense.
"I mean, first of all, it's anti-cocaine. I don't even like the stuff,” Petty said at the time. “And second, what's champagne going for these days? Two bucks a bottle?"
Petty once explained to the Los Angeles Times why he refused to change the lyric in “Listen to Her Heart.”
“This was a love song. I wrote it after my wife at the time told me about going to a party at [a famous musician’s] house and there being all this cocaine around, and I think that kicked off the opening line of the song,” he shared. “There was a lot of resistance from radio to the word ‘cocaine.’ The record company wanted me to change it to champagne,’ but that was a whole different image, and I wouldn’t do it.”
The rock legend admitted that while his refusal to change the controversial lyric made it less radio-friendly, he stood by his decision because he didn’t want to change the meaning of his song.
In a 1993 interview, Petty recalled, “At the time, there was some controversy about the song. It was suggested that we change the word ‘cocaine’ to ‘champagne.’ That bothered me because it didn’t mean the same thing at all. Cocaine is much more expensive than champagne, and it didn’t put it in the proper light for me. I thought since the song was putting the drug in a very negative context, there shouldn’t have been anything wrong with it, but I do think that some stations wouldn’t play it because of that.”
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Petty was no stranger to radio censorship. In 2002, his album The Last DJ was boycotted by some radio stations due to its lyrics about greed in the music industry. The rocker later told Rolling Stone he was “elated” when his song was banned.
“I mean, nothing could have complimented me more than to hear they just banned it as such-and-such a station because it’s anti-radio,” he said. “In 2002, to have a song banned that doesn’t have a dirty word, doesn’t advocate violence—it’s fascinating, you know. Like, what are you afraid of?”
“When I was a young rock ‘n’ roll star, I was really fascinated and shocked at times by the power that I had. By the power of my words,” Petty continued. “[I was] shocked that it can be taken wrong. I don’t believe in censorship. But I do believe that an artist has to take some moral responsibility for what he or she is putting out there.”
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