Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Chicago Tribune
Robert Christgau	B+
The Essential Rock Discography	8/10
MusicHound	5/5
Rolling Stone
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music

Damn the Torpedoes is the RIAA Triple Platinum-certified third album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, released in late 1979. This was the first of three Petty albums originally released by the Backstreet Records label, distributed by MCA Records. It built on the commercial success and critical acclaim of his two previous albums and reached #2 on the Billboard album chart.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 313 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Petty's recording contract was reassigned to MCA when his previous label Shelter Records and distributor ABC Records was sold to MCA in 1979. MCA took over rights to Petty's published music, infuriating him, and he responded by declaring bankruptcy as a tactic to void his contract with MCA. In the end, the record company backed down, and Petty negotiated a deal that allowed him to retain publishing rights and form his own Backstreet Records label, manufactured and distributed by MCA. The album, now co-produced by Jimmy Iovine, was recorded at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys and Cherokee Studios in Hollywood. The title is a reference to a famous quote by Admiral David Farragut: "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!". All of Petty's Backstreet recordings (and all MCA releases at that time) were re-issued by MCA in 1988.

The album was a breakthrough for Petty and the Heartbreakers. It was their first top 10 album rising to #2 (for seven weeks and kept from #1 by Pink Floyd's The Wall) on the Billboard albums chart. It yielded two songs that made the top 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, "Don't Do Me Like That" (#10) and "Refugee" (#15). Thanks to the new co-producer Jimmy Iovine, Damn the Torpedoes proved to be a major leap forward in production.

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