Amidst the barrage of hits that Damn The Torpedoes yielded, one or two tracks were inevitably overlooked, and this tough-yet-soulful, keyboard heavy number was one of them.
Benmont Tench, the Heartbreakers' secret weapon, gets his moment in the sun here, sprinkling sweeping piano lines that meld with Hammond B3 swells to a stunningly effective degree. Petty, like most great singers, has a couple of different voices in his quill, and on You Tell Me he alternates between light and shade - one moment he's caressing your ear with a whisper, the next he's spitting his words with unmasked venom. And check out Mike Campbell, whose guitar lines scream into the night.
While not a smasheroony, the song isn't a piker by any stretch.