• AllMyVinyl #109
• Band: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
• Album Title: Greatest Hits
• Release Date: 16 Nov 1993
• Date purchased: 12 Feb 2021
• Location purchased: Amazon
• Color of vinyl: black
• Number of discs: 2
• Links: [ Wikipedia | Discogs | Band Website | Complete album on Youtube ]

Before I get to the album there’s one thing I want to say.  Death misses none of us.  We all eventually are tagged by the Grim Reaper – but some of them affect you more than others.  Petty was like that for me.  He’s been gone now about seven and a half years as I write this, and it still bugs me he’s gone.  He’s always been there.  While not a guy I’d say was #1 on my list of artists, he was a solid entry in the overall musical landscape.  Has some awesome track, and it’s shame there’s no more.  But that’s what I’m here to talk about today – 18 of his songs packaged together that are well..  “Greatest Hits”.

This is a double album length collection of Tom Petty songs (both just Tom Petty as well as TP and the Heartbreakers).  I know they’re technically different, but I’ve always personally viewed them the same insofar as my own ears go.  This was originally released back in 1993, and then fell out of print.  It was reissued in 2008 by Geffen replacing the song “Something in the Air” with the duet with Stevie Nicks “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around”.  Oddly it was re-issued yet AGAIN just two years later in 2010 restoring the original track listing, although some art changed in the 2008 version was retained.  In 2016 it was reissued on vinyl for the first time since the 1993 original, and that’s what I got (the 2016 Geffen vinyl reprint).  Although not quite then, I got it in 2021 – spotted it on a sale price and jumped on it, since I didn’t have any Tom Petty on vinyl, and a double disc Greatest Hits seemed like a good way to get all the songs I like.

Oddly, I never bought any of the earlier Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers albums.  I don’t know why – I always liked Petty, I just never bought his stuff.  As I think back, he was always one of those radio guys for me.  Heard him a lot on the radio, so I just used that for my Petty fixes in the past.  However, I’m long LONG past the era of listening to the radio as a primary driver for music – the lack of control eventually became the main issue there.  Oddly, I bought the last three Petty & The Heartbreakers studio albums (2002’s “The Last DJ”, 2010’s “Mojo”, and 2014’s “Hypnotic Eye”), and loved all three of those.  I did also buy what’s officially a Petty solo album (1989’s “Full Moon Fever”), but that wasn’t a Heartbreakers album.  As such this GH package doesn’t have anything from those (or the 1999 “Echo” album).  But this double album more than covers all the good shit from the earlier albums for me.  Quite pleased with the track selection here (in general) – I mean there’s always a track or two one wishes was on there but wasn’t. :)

There’s a lot of tracks here (18 in all), so I’ll get to ’em.

American Girl – To me this is the most Tom Petty song of all.  I’d go out on a limb and say it’s not his most well known, but for me it’s peak Petty.  That doesn’t mean it was all downhill from there, his catalog is littered with massive tracks.  But this is almost his “Stairway to Heaven” right out of the gate.  I particularly love the chorus part when the background vocals sing “.. make it last all night”.  It’s a killer track and one that I never tire of.   (not so) fun fact..  American Girl is the last ever song Petty played at his final concert – he died about a week after that  concert (25 Sep 2017).   Fun fact 2 – This was from Petty’s first album, and as I sit here to write this, I realized that it turns fifty years old in a little less than TWO YEARS!

Breakdown – Also from the first Petty album in 1976, this was the lead single from the album.  It’s absolutely one of the songs that when I hear I flash back to listening to AM radio for my rock fix.  It’s just got that kind of sound for this kid who grew up with radio as a huge part of his landscape.  It’s got a great underlying rhythm that drives the different parts of the song.  I quite like this one too.  One thing I wish we could hear is the original track.  In reading about it, I’ve found the OG recording was over 8 minutes, and it was pared down to the 2:39 that it is on the album.  I think this could go with a little more time.  But what we have is damn good – like this a lot as well.  I’ve seen reviews that call the sound “soultry”.  I can hear that for sure.

Listen to Her Heart – Second single from second album in 1978.  It starts off sounding like one I wasn’t going to be into, but once the rhythm guitar sound kicks in, it makes the song work really well for me – much in the way that Malcolm Young does for AC/DC.  It’s not one I recall hearing a ton, but I enjoyed the heck out of it today.  It has a nice guitar solo – nothing too flashy, but a great sounding riff to go with the rest of the song.

I Need to Know – A faster song than the ones to this point.  Nothing Petty does approaches “speed” like something like Megadeth (hah), but for him this is a faster paced song.  The title of the song is repeated a lot in the lyrics.  It’s not quite George Harrison “Got My Mind Set on You” level, but it’s.   Has a nice sound in the guitar solo section of the song that sounds like it would fit in nicely with rockabilly bands like the Stray Cats.   I had forgotten about that part of the song.  Nice sound here.

Refugee – Second single from the third Petty album in 1979 – loved that album title (Damn the Torpedoes).  When I think back to Petty on the radio this song was for me the most played track.  Heard it **A LOT** on the radio in the early/mid 80’s.  So much so it’s the one Petty song I’ve probably burnt out on.  It’s not like it’s a bad song – I don’t think Petty has any actual BAD songs, but this one has lost some power to me due to radio overplay.

Don’t Do Me Like That – Also from the Torpedoes album – I like this one a bit more than Refugee.  It’s another one I know VERY well from the radio days in the past, but it still has some hold with me, unlike Refugee.  I like the way the title lyrics are sung – that’s the main draw for me – less the music in the rest of the song.  Finding it hard to get words out for this one.  Maybe I’m latching on to my own radio memories from decades gone by?  Hard to tell as I sit here writing today.  Band liked it, as it was the first single from the album.

Even the Losers – The is one that I don’t remember at all except for the chorus.  The rest of the song I’ve completely forgotten about, apparently. It really is one I’ve forgotten about.  It’s probably one I would have left off.  Not bad, but not a lot about this one really gets me going.

Here Comes My Girl – The last song from the Torpedoes album here – that album has four songs, no other album has that many here, so it’s probably a favorite album with the band.  It kind of sounds like a power ballad in places, but it really isn’t?  It does have my good old friend the time change.  As it played, I sat in my chair, and closed my eyes and just took it in.  That kind of song for me.  Thing is I never really had a girl at the time I could apply the song to.  haha.  It has a “talking singing” type of vocal delivery that Tom doesn’t do a lot of – reminds me a little of latter era Roger Waters in that regard.

The Waiting – I always thought that was called “The Waiting is the Hardest Part”, as it just feels like a title to me.  The chorus has that Tom Petty vocal delivery that just screams ‘you’re listening to a Petty song” – nobody else could do that.  Another one of his big hits from the early 80’s (we’re in 1981 now) that still sticks with me.  I always would sing the “yeah yeah” part as they went into the chorus.   A staple of my Walkman era of music for sure.

You Got Lucky – It’s 1982 now, and the big 80’s instrument – the synthesizer – makes an appearance here.   Where there’d normally are a guitar sound we get a synth sound.  It was a change in sound for him overall – but it was the way things were done here.  It’s not all synth – I mean we’re not the Eurthymics here (heh), but it does have a sound that most Petty songs do not.  I grew up with it, but I could see where people who did not might not like this one for the change in sound.  It was another one that got played a lot back in the day, so I’d hear it all the time.  I do like the sound in the guitar solo area.  I’m not quite sure how to describe the sound made here – it’s some sort of processed sound.  I like it – I just can’t describe it.

Don’t Come Around Here No More – Now this one I remember more for the video, which I seem to recall took some shit at the time for its content.  Played Tom in the role of the Mad Hatter from the Alice in Wonderland story.  In the story, he has Alice experience a bunch of weird events, culminating in her turning into a cake and being eaten by everyone else in the video.  It’s a bizarre video, and it’s always overshadowed the song for me.  I simply cannot hear the song without seeing the video in my head – cannot be done.

I Won’t Back Down – A single from Petty’s first official solo album in 1989.  It’s got a slower beat (except for the chorus), but has a powerful draw.  The song has been used by people to drive their political messages from time to time (much like Ronald Reagan – INCORRECTLY – did with “Born in the USA”).  It’s a great song, but it’s kind of transcended just being a simple piece of music since Tom’s death.  Tom Petty died on 2 Oct 2017, and the day before that on 1 Oct, there was a mass shooting in Las Vegas at a music festival that killed 50, and injured over 500.  Saturday Night Live that weekend changed their format, and had country artist Jason Aldean open the show, singing “I Won’t Back Down” as a double tribute to the death of Tom Petty and for the shooting.  I remember watching that live (as I always watch SNL new), thinking it was an awesome moment.  I’ve embedded Aldean’s version in the videos on my blog page. Aldean’s version harnesses that slightly nasally vocal quality that Tom always had quite well in this tribute.  The Petty original is quite good, but I REALLY enjoy this cover for what it meant to hear it that night on Saturday Night Live.  Aldean even got to say the famous “Live From New York, it’s Saturday Night” line too.

Runnin’ Down a Dream – This one is a faster song than I think anything else on the album.  It’s not usually the kind of vibe Tom goes for, but man did it work here.  It was the second single from his 89 solo album, and IMO it should been the first.  It’s my favorite track from the album – it just chugs along at a pace that I really love.  His solo album had a lot of help from the guys he was in “The Traveling Wiburys” with him.  This song was written co written with Jeff Lynne & Mike Campbell from the Heartbreakers, so it’s got kind of a mix of styles.  It also had an animated video that really got my attention in 1990.  Not that it was particularly groundbreaking, but I was into animation around that time a lot, so the video appealed to me on top of me liking the song.  While Petty never does anything that even remotely gets close to metal, this might be the closest.  Don’t misunderstand me – I do not think it’s metal, but if a metal band covered Petty, this wouldn’t sound too far off whoever that band might be’s sound.

Free Fallin’ – If Runnin’ was the fast song from his solo album, Free Fallin’ is the slower one.  This was the third in a row of big hits from his 89 solo album – which I remember being massive at the time.  It was also stupid huge, as it had a nice beat to it.  Of the three big songs from Full Moon Fever, it’s probably the one I like the least, as it is the slow one.  I can love a slow one – but this one was kind of in the middle for me.  Not good, not bad.  Just there.  Likewise I know a few people who this is their fav song by his. C’est la vie.

One last note about his “Full Moon Fever” album.  I never owned it on vinyl, but I did have it on CD.  I recall hearing something in negative time at the start of Track 6 (“Feel A Whole Lot Better”).  Now I call it negative time – I forget what the formal name of that really is.  It’s when your CD player counts down backwards to zero instead of the normal other way around counting up as a song is playing.  Anyway in that negative time was a message for those who had the album on CD.  The text from the piece (which has become known as “Attention CD Listeners” is….  “Hello, CD listeners. We’ve come to the point in this album where those listening on cassette, or records, will have to stand up, or sit down, and turn over the record, or tape. In fairness to those listeners, we’ll now take a few seconds before we begin side two. [pause] Thank you. Here’s side two.”

Learning to Fly – After the solo album was done, it was back to the Heartbreakers with this song.  My oldest memory is that when I heard Petty was doing a song with this title, I thought “Hang on, he’s not covering Pink Floyd is he?”  He wasn’t, but Floyd did just have a huge hit with a song by the same title four years previously.  :)  That’s of course my mutant brain sticking stuff where it doesn’t belong – this song has nothing to do with Floyd.  It’s got a slightly different feel – I can hear the Lynne influence here for sure.  It’s probably not my favorite of hit songs.  I recall being disappointed with this at the time – following the most excellent Full Moon Fever.  It’s OK, just not my favorite of his songs.  Guitar solo has a nice sound to it, though.  That part I like – it’s just short.

Into the Great Wide Open – The title track from the 1991 album that also birthed the song before this on my writeup.  It reached #4 on the US charts – but I don’t remember it being quite that popular.  Might be something to do with with my no longer listening to FM radio as my main driver – it was all CD’s for me at this point.  This too felt like a disappointment.  All these years later I can’t recall if I legit didn’t like the music or it was just a “That’s not Full Moon Fever”.  As I listen to it today, it seems OK to me – not a top shelf song, but just kind of “there”.

Mary Jane’s Last Dance – This song I liked a WHOLE lot better than the two before it.  This came out new for this Greatest Hits package for the 1993 original release.  It’s got a much different sound than most of his recent material – sounds like something that would fit in on the first couple of albums quite easily.  Has a harmonica, a guitar sound that sounds borderline country at times.  Petty’s vocal delivery is also slightly higher than usual.  At least until we get to the chorus, and it sounds like a traditional Petty hit song.  I think I liked the dichotomy of the two different song styles mashed together into one.  Worked well.  Video was a bit creepy as it had Petty as a morgue assistant where Kim Basinger was there as a a corpse.  But I really dig the song – it’s one of my favorite Petty songs.  Love the “oh hell yes” part from a vocal delivery standpoint.  Great song.

Something in the Air – The last song here is a cover of someone I didn’t know who they are – “Thunderclap Newman“.  The original track had the Who guitarist Pete Townshend on it – but playing bass (under the nickname Bijou Drains”).  It’s a good track – I enjoy the vocals and the music (paticularly the “We have got to get it together” part) – but given it’s a cover, I find myself wishing for a proper Petty song on here.  Someone somewhere must have had the same thought as one of the album re-releases in the past replaced this song with “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” – which was then replaced with Something in the Air again a couple of years later, restoring the original 1993 track listing.

Thus ends the double vinyl Greatest Hits album.  It’s a great selection of tracks, only a couple towards the end I’m mostly indifferent about.  Nothing on here sucks or is a skip (Hello Open Arms from Journey GH!), so that’s good.  Like every Greatest Hits album one wishes a few tracks were picked differently, but there’s not a ton here I would go “you know, get that outta here”.  I always wished he did a second Greatest Hits to cover the four studio albums that came after this.  I mean I adore “The Last DJ” as an album – two songs form that are excellent (“The Last DJ” & “Joe“).

It didn’t end here for Petty though.  After he died, his family/estate put out a package called “An American Treasure” that contained a ton of tracks – mostly unreleased stuff.  It’s had 60 songs on four CDs.  If you want a deep time into Tom Petty, that’s it.  Tom’s daughter Adria made a music video for one song off that called “Keep a Little Soul” made up of mostly home videos which was nice to see.

Rest in Peace Tom Petty – I’m still not over you having left us 7 years later.  Wish he was still out there – I never saw him live, and that’s a musical regret for me for sure.

P.S. – The cartoon of Tom Petty in heaven at the top of the page was drawn by Andy Marlette – the original is viewable here.