The Album
"Band Of The Hand" was written and recorded by Bob Dylan as the title theme for the 1986 Michael Mann-produced crime drama of the same name, cut with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers serving as his backing band during the period the two were touring together. Petty produced the track himself, and the session was recorded in Sydney, Australia during the True Confessions tour the two acts shared that year, giving the song a harder, more contemporary rock edge than Dylan's studio work of the era. The pairing reflected a mid-1980s stretch in which Dylan, coming off the mixed reception of his Empire Burlesque album, leaned on Petty's band for live and recording support, a collaboration that reinvigorated his sound and stage presence. The song itself is a driving, horn-and-guitar-accented rocker quite different from Dylan's folk and singer-songwriter catalogue, aimed squarely at mainstream film-soundtrack radio. It appeared on the Band Of The Hand motion picture soundtrack album alongside tracks by other contemporary rock acts, and functioned as a one-off promotional single to support that film tie-in. While a minor entry in Dylan's vast discography, it stands as a notable document of his Heartbreakers-backed period and is valued by collectors chiefly for that pairing rather than chart impact. Critics at the time treated it as a solid, if unremarkable, soundtrack cut, its chief interest being Dylan's unusual venture into uptempo, radio-ready rock under Petty's direction.