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Nov 28, 2020 · November 28, 2020. We count down Tom Petty's 50 greatest songs, from his Seventies classics to his Nineties hits. George Rose/Getty. “It’s a strange to say out loud, but I always felt...
- Formative Rockers
- Hidden Bluesy Depths
- Straddling Rock and Pop Radio
- Tom and His Friends
- Top of The Bill
- The Quintessential American
- An Unknowing Farewell
Anything That’s Rock ’n’ Roll / American Girl
Petty served wider notice of his incisive songwriting, sharp-tongued lyrics, and distinctive vocals when he and the Heartbreakers debuted on disc in 1976. But it was in the U.K. that they received their first chart placings. They had minor British Top 40 hits from that LP with both “Anything That’s Rock ’n’ Roll”and “American Girl,” giving punk a real run for its money that new wave-fuelled summer. To this day, it’s hard to believe that the anthemic “American Girl” never showed on that U.S. c...
Refugee
“Refugee” was part of 1979’s memorable third album Damn The Torpedoes, which bears the distinction of being the Heartbreakers’ most-certified U.S. release, at triple platinum. Co-writer Mike Campbell later remembered: “It took us forever to actually cut the track. We just had a hard time getting the feel right. We must have recorded that 100 times. I remember being so frustrated with it one day that – I think this is the only time I ever did this – I just left the studio and went out of town...
Breakdown
“Breakdown,” from Petty and the Heartbreakers’ self-titled first album in late 1976, was an early sign that they were about far more than foot-to-the-floor rock’n’roll. Its sulky blues tones inspired covers by Suzi Quatro and, on their Wasting Light Tour of 2011, Foo Fighters. Not to mention a reggaed-up rendition by Grace Jones, on 1980’s Warm Leatherette. After Tom and co’s first two UK chart showings, their original “Breakdown” hit the Hot 100 in November.
Good Enough
Years later, on their 12th studio set Mojo, released in 2010, Tom and the boys went back to the bar (or the 12 bars) to deliver some raucous bluesiness in the form of “Good Enough.” As part of their first album together for eight years, the Petty/Campbell co-write was a raunchy reminder of the feistiness that got them noticed in the first place.
Don’t Do Me Like That
There was a tangible aura of controlled aggression about so many Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers songs, an alluring sense of danger that made it cool to choose them as your favorite group. All of that in spite of the fact that their ear for a commercial melody carried them onto both pop and rock radio, when so many rivals had to choose one or the other. “Don’t Do Me Like That” was a song that Petty had had lying around for five years, back to when his early (and later) band Mudcrutch recorded...
You Got Lucky
1982’s Long After Dark contained another song that married the two genres. “You Got Lucky” was a No.1 hit on Billboard‘s mainstream rock listing, but also made the Top 20 on the Hot 100. Additionally, it was a sign of the ways in which a quintessential rock band was adapting to the new electronic ingredients in the music of the early 80s, written to a drum loop and with Benmont Tench’s synthesizer lines holding sway over Campbell’s guitars.
Don’t Come Around Here No More
Three songs on 1985’s Southern Accentswere written by Petty with a new sparring partner, David A. Stewart of Eurythmics. “Don’t Come Around Here No More” was not necessarily an obvious first single from the set, but its insistent rhythm and mystical undertones, helped by Stewart’s electric sitar and Daniel Rothmuller’s cello, won fans over.
Wildflowers
We’ve seen already that Petty found his place at rock’s top table quite early in their reign. He was a friend to fellow artists in many guises. As a producer, his credits included the 1981 set Drop Down and Get Me, for one of the inspirations of his youth, Del Shannon. In 2017, Byrds co-founder Chris Hillman brought him in for the acclaimed Bidin’ My Time, which turned out to be Petty’s last work. It included a version of “Wildflowers.” He and the Heartbreakers even played backing band, to Jo...
Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around
As a songwriter for outside projects, Tom was notably invaluable for Stevie Nicks. For example, he composed “I Will Run To You” for her 1983 album The Wild Heart, on which the Heartbreakers played. But it was their teaming before that, for Nicks’ 1981 release Bella Donna, that gave both another career high point in the form of “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.”
Last Night
Petty’s most famous partnership outside of the Heartbreakers was under the lighthearted alter ego of Charlie T. Wilbury Jr. It came into being when he got together with Dylan, Roy Orbison, George Harrison, and Jeff Lynne to set the industry on its ear and create the Traveling Wilburys. Across two original albums, the group had an almost indecent amount of irreverent fun that reminded them, and us, of what music had meant to them in their youth. From Traveling Wilburys Vol.1, released in 1988,...
I Won’t Back Down
Soon after the first Wilburys disc, Petty arrived at a new staging post, with the 1989 release of his first album in his own name. Full Moon Feverwould be one of his greatest commercial triumphs. In a way, it continued the Wilbury party, being co-produced by Lynne, who also co-wrote most of it with Tom, and featuring appearances by Harrison and Orbison. The record included trademarks widely held to be among the best Tom Petty songs, and was introduced by the lead single “I Won’t Back Down.”
Runnin’ Down A Dream
Petty later told Rolling Stone: “We did Full Moon Fever for the sheer fun of it. We never sweated it. It was the most enjoyable record I’ve ever worked on.” You can hear it, too. On the album’s second single “Runnin’ Down A Dream,” he even namechecked another of the heroes he had been able to work with, Del Shannon, with the line “Me and Del were singin’ ‘Little Runaway.’” Tragically, little more than nine months after the album’s release, Shannon committed suicide, aged just 55.
Free Fallin’
No Petty song climbed as high, charted as long or took his unique talent to more people than “Free Fallin’.” An anthem of independence from the day it came out, its spirit has been invoked time and again, on screens big and small in Jerry Maguire and The Sopranosand by Petty and the Heartbreakers themselves, at 2008’s Super Bowl XLII Halftime Show.
Into The Great Wide Open
A recurring characteristic of Petty’s work is that he truly represents the American everyman. Even as a highly successful and well-rewarded rock star, he retained a realness that made him a man of the people, a representation of the United States as many wished them to be. When the Heartbreakers reassembled in 1991 for Into the Great Wide Open, perhaps there was even an element of his younger self in its title story song, as he sang “Into the great wide open, under them skies of blue/Out in t...
Learning To Fly
The first single from that set was a masterpiece of simple expression, both in terms of its four-chord structure and its cards-on-the-table declaration of someone learning to fly, on a personal quest but without any wings (“I’ve started out for God-knows-where, I guess I‘ll know when I get there”). Rock radio adored it, keeping the song at No.1 in that format for six weeks.
The Last DJ
Petty was often the prism through which one could sense an erosion of old American values, of a certain decency ebbing away. So it was again on 2002’s The Last DJ, his 11th studio album with the Heartbreakers. It signaled the return of original bassist Ron Blair to replace the ailing Howie Epstein, who sadly died the following year. Its songs told a tale of “capitalism gone amok,” as E! Online put it. For Billboard, it had Petty “slyly balancing bitter references to modern-day payola, shifty...
American Dream Plan B
Such a constant was Petty in our collective rock consciousness that we couldn’t have dreamed that 2014’s Hypnotic Eye would be his, and the Heartbreakers, last album. Their 13th studio record was appropriately celebrated, becoming their only U.S. No.1 and, in some ways, bringing them full circle back to the steely rock’n’roll of their first two LPs. The reviews glowed. Entertainment Weekly spoke of its “knowing urgency,” American Songwriter called it “a bastion of consistent excellence.” “Ame...
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- “Wildflowers” More than one of the greatest Tom Petty songs, “Wildflowers” is one of the best love songs of all time. The delicate acoustic ballad is subtle and powerful, both in its lyrics and performance.
- “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video for good reason. The memorable clip features Petty as a mortician who dresses up a dead woman (Kim Basinger) as his bride and dances around with her.
- “American Girl” “American Girl” is the quintessential Tom Petty song. The fast, jangle pop track came out of nowhere in the late 70s to immediately catapult him into the national consciousness.
- “I Won’t Back Down” Tom Petty was already a huge star when he released Full Moon Fever, but the album catapulted him even further. Hits like “Free Fallin'” and “I Won’t Back Down” showed that he still had his plenty left in the tank, even after his classic 70s/early 80s era.
Jan 9, 2024 · 1. American Girl. Tom Petty. 41 votes. 2. Listen To Her Heart. Tom Petty. 30 votes. I Won't Back Down. Tom Petty. 37 votes. 4. Learning To Fly. Tom Petty. 37 votes. 5. The Waiting. Tom Petty. 40 votes. 6. Even The Losers.
- American Girl” from Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ ‘Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ (1976) “Well she was an American girl/Raised on promises/She couldn't help thinkin' that there/Was a little more to life/Somewhere else!”
- “Even The Losers” from Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ ‘Damn The Torpedoes’ (1979) A classic song about a memorable one-night stand, but this one has a much different vibe than “The Wild One, Forever.”
- “The Waiting” from Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ ‘Hard Promises’ (1981) In the song, Petty seems to be referring to waiting for a relationship to happen: “Well yeah I might have chased a couple of women around/All it ever got me was down/Yeah, then there were those that made me feel good/But never as good as I feel right now!”
- “Free Fallin’” from Tom Petty’s ‘Full Moon Fever’ (1989) Petty’s biggest hit single, it reached #7 on the pop charts: it’s nice when the best music is also the most popular!
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Apr 27, 2023 · Classic Rock. From the heart: The 12 best Tom Petty songs. By Joe Bosso. ( Classic Rock ) published 27 April 2023. With chiming guitars and widescreen imagination, Tom Petty's take on Americana was as irresistible as it was authentic. (Image credit: Matt Seliger) Tom Petty was a musician’s musician. A man other musicians wanted to work with.
Oct 3, 2017 · For a shining moment, all is right with the world. Then it comes crashing down. “I shoulda’ known right then it was too good to last / God, it’s such a drag to have to live in the past ...
