Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers - Too Good To Be True Lyrics

I think Mike Campbell held back on this song when it comes to lead. He could've broke out a monster solo, but didn't. He did in the live versions though. Weird that he didn't rip it on the album version.

Sometimes you have a personal crisis and this song will always make me grateful... love all you guys.

If ever there was a song that described itself, this is it.

Good tune

The Jeff Lynne collaborations Full Moon Fever and Out in the Great Wide Open were stellar. I remember listening to them over and over again. I know Benmont Tench is a keyboard genius but he was such a pain in the ass during that period -- eventually all the Heartbreakers playing on the so-called solo records -- what would BT that opinionated genius think of Springsteen? And despite the sometimes disrupted continuity - Mike Campbell said it best when he talked about all the members taking on other projects, just not to become stale, and have fresh new musical ideas. Yes there were a couple of personnel changes; I understand that Stan Lynch was discontented; Ron CAME BACK -- what a saga; the revival of Mudcrutch --- the last in depth interview after the release of Hypnotic Eye with Jian Ghomeshi was so candid; as TP's personal life stabilized he began to focus on social injustice more, whether it be corporate rock (that confrontation over the value of Roger McQuinn in Runnin Down a Dream was brilliant), and similarly American Plan B and his thoughts on the vanishing of the middle class were candit reflections of a brilliant articulate man. His social armour, the trickster, the mad hatter, the laid back pot head who only spoke when he had something to say and it was usually both outrageous and hilarious -- he put that aside in that interview and I'm glad.

Why did Stan Lynch leave? He was on such good terms with the rest of The Heartbreakers afterward, so it's hard to believe that even the littlest bit of bad blood over any one thing would cause him to leave.

@Joseph Ruiz : Stan Lynch admitted in past interviews that this time period of the band was the hardest for him to collaborate and be in sync with the band. So he left or got fired. Even during the Behind The Music interview he said the 70's and 80's were great, but 90's were tough. Petty was doing more solo work. I think the 2 tracks they recorded for the 93 Greatest Hits was the last he tracked for The Heartbreakers.

False ending ftw. Just too good to end at that point. ;-)

The thing about Mike Campbell, as I know you know, is that he was never going to be a show-off Jeff Beck soloist; more than Benmont Tench there was much less of Tom Petty without his quiet genius. Maybe in the context of Into the Great Wide Open, when all the band members played even though with Jeff Lynne things were radically different, Mike just couldn't help himself and went wild and as I'm sure you know Tom was a great admirer of bringing in natural ambient sounds, which I know he got from later Beatles recordings, and began as early as Even the Losers, with Mike's wife shouting above a washing machine, 'it's just the normal noises down here', which should go down in history. I always appreciate people noticing things about recordings and information etc. in this mode; I love the empathy of TP&H's legacy which 3 generations have been listening to (it was a miracle that my Dad actually liked Bob Dylan when I was 9 and bought a turntable so I could listen to what I liked, but that's another country and my Dad is dead.) I've been working on essays on TP's videos but got into the labyrinth of his wandering pronouns … I translate and do free-lance writing and if there is one thing of which I am absolutely sure; Tom Petty's music will stand the test of time. I have little patience with young girls looking at old photos and exhibiting the Beatlemania effect, which still happens a lot I kid you not at all; it's disrespectful of a man who out of bloody-mindedness and a deep sense of justice refused to reschedule a grueling last tour despite his fractured upper femur. If he should be remembered, and like Joni Mitchell he will be, it will be as much for his quiet activism as it will be for his emotionally encompassing music.

False ending was actually a disjunct between 2 states of mind; perhaps 2 people. I noticed it too. I liked this song because it confused me in the same way the video for Swingin was meant to confuse me. I have listened to every note of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, of course Mudcrutch; Tom Petty's lyrics more than anything are often ambiguous as in this song. When you get to "Just when hope was wearing thin and there was no talk of giving in, her eyes were like a child again" -- there's no irony, it's as straightforward as the ending of Breakfast at Tiffany's. But here comes the wandering pronoun; "sitting on the outskirts of town in the traffic alone… you don't know what it means to be free/but it was too good to be true. Was it? Was the transcendent experience real or a fake, and cause of cynicism, etc. Happens all the time in Petty land; part of why his lyrics are so powerful. Just don't think they're a puzzle to be solved; not what they're about. A place to inhabit perhaps, haven't found words for his words :)

Underrated Song don't know how it isn't a greatest hit song. Awesome song

Tom was so prolific, I find it hard to find a song I would dismiss; an embarrassment of riches as we French twits would say. What I loved about this song in particular amounted to two things; his wandering pronoun as I like to call it; he's in this young woman's mind and then … it's him perhaps speaking for himself; I love that conflation of points of view that is an unmarked strength of his writing; and 2. usually in English when you say too good to be true it means a looming disappointment but not in this song, which is all about awe and wonder and openness to life.

This tune is smokin'. When this album was released, I overlooked it, focusing instead on the title track, Learning to Fly and Out in the Cold. So, old dogs really can learn new tricks 'cause I listen to "True" at least once a day.

My fiance's song. For all of the horrid and terrible struggles she's gone through in her life, she's on a path with me that is never "too good to be true", and I love seeing and experiencing the joy she feels living her life the way her freedom desires.

This song is about holding onto and appreciating your blessings even if you think they're "too good to be true".

?? Rubin who produced this album with Jeff Lynne spent a whole year mesmerized by Full Moon Fever; I can relate. Brilliance like this album … rara avis.