The Quarrymen of Gainesville?

In a nutshell, that’s Mudcrutch, the band Tom Petty played in before forming the Heartbreakers. And while John Lennon and Paul McCartney never got around to resurrecting the Quarrymen, their first band, after the Beatles exploded, Petty and his long-ago mates – guitarist Tom Leadon and drummer Randall Marsh along with future Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench and guitarist Mike Campbell – have reunited to put out the debut album they never made.

“Mudcrutch” will be released on April 29.

Of the album, Petty writes in a note posted on the Mudcrutch fan Web site, “I am over the moon about it. I couldn’t have hoped for it to be as good as it came out.”

Mudcrutch gained a solid following in Florida in the early ’70s, prompting the band to move to California in hopes of bigger things. But the result was just one single, and the members quickly went their separate ways.

While working on a solo album, Tench invited Petty and Campbell to join him for sessions he’d set up with the rhythm section of drummer Stan Lynch and bassist Ron Blair, the lineup that soon became the Heartbreakers.