Though his career may have been something like the photo-negative version of Tom Petty’s, Replacements leader Paul Westerberg’s best songs struck a lot of the same chords (literally and figuratively) as the King Heartbreaker - exemplified by songs like “Change of Heart,” which split the difference between power pop and bar band like the best late-period Replacements songs, only a half-decade earlier. “Change of Heart” ( Long After Dark, 1982) But wow, that chorus: Tom’s a cool cat until the second he explodes into that first “ BA-BY!,” but by refrain’s end, you can tell pretty well why he’s not afraid of you running away anytime soon.ġ4. The breakout hit that back-doored Tom Petty into the mainstream - so sneaky and surreptitious in its meandering strut that it merely peeked its head into the Hot 100’s top 40 before slipping away. “Breakdown” ( Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, 1976) “Let me get to the point/ Let’s roll another joint”: It was even funnier because he knew there was no way MTV was gonna let him get away with it.ġ5. Petty’s final massive crossover hit, with a groove that out-saunters “The Joker” and a sentiment that sways back and forth between supreme chill to existential angst with such wicked insouciance that of course the post-grunge era couldn’t turn it down. “You Don’t Know How It Feels” ( Wildflowers, 1994) “ I’ve got a few of my own fault lines running under my life” as a chorus hook is obviously peak Petty: hard-lived and tough-lucked, but still grinning through it.ġ6. Tom Petty’s rock relevance had inevitably waned by the 21st century, but the songs never really dried up - 2014’s Hypnotic Eye, now to stand as his final LP, was one of the best of his later years, with the alternately smoky and swampy “Fault Lines” an obvious highlight.
#Tom petty greatest hits full#
“I Won’t Back Down” ( Full Moon Fever, 1989)Ī melody so fundamental one of the biggest pop hits of this decade could rip it off without even realizing it, and a similarly straight-laced message that Petty’s fanbase could take to heart: “You can stand me up at the gates of hell/ But I won’t back down.” He sings it with a shrug rather than a sneer Tom Petty never needed to be bossy to be the boss.
The harmonies and ringing guitars that lead the chorus back into the verse are also pure Fab Four apparently Petty passed the audition because within a year he’d be in a band with one of ’em.ġ8.
“Ain’t Love Strange” ( Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough), 1987)Ī buried gem on Petty’s only pre-’94 LP not to notch at least one song on his Greatest Hits, rollicking and twangy and red-blooded enough to have featured on a late-’80s Steve Earle album.
“Good love is hard to find/ You got lucky, babe, when I found you,” Petty taunts on the chorus, with the keys chiming in like backing singers to provide further shoulder-dusting.ġ9. “You Got Lucky” ( Long After Dark, 1982)Ī delectable moment of synth-pop swagger from the rarely malevolent Petty. Tom Petty, Rock 'n' Roll Legend, Dies at 66Ģ0.
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