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Tom's Top 25: Our ultimate list of Tom Petty songs

 
Tom Petty has compiled a vast catalog of hits, which means our list of the top 25 may leave a few hearts broken.
Tom Petty has compiled a vast catalog of hits, which means our list of the top 25 may leave a few hearts broken.
Published Sept. 17, 2014

By SEAN DALY | Times Pop Music Critic

Tom Petty may not call the Sunshine State his home anymore, but you'd better believe the folks who reside in F-L-A still proudly claim the Gainesville rock star as one of our own. • When I recently asked Tampa Bay Times readers via various social media outlets for their favorite Petty songs — with his venerable Heartbreakers or solo or even with those Traveling Wilburys — the fervent response was fast, bountiful and passionate. • Like, really passionate. • I quickly realized that putting together my list of the 25 best Petty cuts of all time — smack-dab in the heart of Florida, a.k.a. Petty Country — was not only going to be tough, it was going to be polarizing, too. In other words: Hate Mail City, baby! • With the 63-year-old Petty bringing the Heartbreakers to Tampa's Amalie Arena on Sunday, I present this "definitive" (or something) best-of list. After I put my 25 together, I noticed I didn't have two fan "requests": Mary Jane's Last Dance (never loved it, although Mike Campbell's riff is slick) and Breakdown (sacrilege, I know, but again, it's never been a go-to for me). But hey, I love these even more. Start bickering, and rocking out, now:

25. Dogs on the Run

from 1985's Southern Accents

My father and I used to bike through Valley Forge cranking this Side 2 anthem on our respective toaster-sized Sony Walkmans. Now that's a good memory.

24. You Wreck Me

from 1994's Wildflowers

If I'm behind the wheel when I hear this girl-trouble guitar riot, I'll gladly pay the fine for going 105 in a 55.

23. American Dream Plan B

from 2014's Hypnotic Eye

The best track on his best LP in ages, all big building blocks and oily garage-rockin' breakdowns. Petty wouldn't be the icon he is without not-so-secret weapon Mike Campbell riffing by his side.

22. You Got Lucky

from 1982's Long After Dark

Hey, even Bob Dylan got suckered into the cheeseball '80s now and then. Longtime 'Breaker Benmont Tench's goofy, plodding New Wave organ is offset by Campbell's modern-saloon swagger.

21. Jammin' Me

from 1987's Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)

The Joe Piscopo reference is really dated; angrily railing against a merciless onslaught of 24/7 information is really not.

20. Walls (Circus)

from 1996's She's the One soundtrack

A playful backing vocal by Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham sets up a tingly SoCal-sunset coda.

19. The Apartment Song

from 1989's Full Moon Fever

Petty's first "solo" album is pretty close to perfect. Love this silly cut's Buddy Holly drum breakdown.

18. Wildflowers

from Wildflowers

This bittersweet, sun-kissed ballad is pretty and pretty painful, as Petty urges a love to go find a better life. Yeah, that's about enough of that.

17. Make It Better (Forget About Me)

from Southern Accents

The goofy video "inside" a model's ear didn't do this underrated blast any favors. Tench gets a Stax groove going on the keyboard as soul-kissed horns push things into sweaty Memphis-at-midnight territory.

16. Spike

from Southern Accents

This murky slice of sleazy swamp boogie was inspired by legendary Gainesville dive the Cypress Lounge and its bare-knuckle inhabitants.

15. Here Comes My Girl

from 1979's Damn the Torpedoes

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Petty has never been shy about showing his jangly influences, and here he admits to directly biting the Byrds' high-holy country-rock harmonies for the chorus.

14. Think About Me

from Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)

There's a subset of Petty breakup songs in which the protagonist is arrogantly defiant in the face of getting dumped. This rockabilly romp is one of his cockiest.

13. Stop Draggin' My Heart Around

from Stevie Nicks' 1981 album Bella Donna

Written by Petty and Campbell, gifted to Stevie Nicks by producer Jimmy Iovine, it's nothing less than one of the grittiest duets of all time.

12. Refugee

from Damn the Torpedoes

With that roaring twin engine of Campbell's guitar and Tench's keyboards, Petty could have recited his grocery list and made it a smash. But he didn't: "Somewhere, somehow, somebody must have kicked you around some." Indeed.

11. Don't Come Around Here No More

from Southern Accents

The birth of my music-critic career: triumphantly defending this trippy kiss-off to 15-year-old naysayers saying Petty had lost it. Gotta love the accompanying Alice in Pettyland video, too.

10. Listen to Her Heart

from 1978's You're Gonna Get It

Petty supposedly wrote this chiming back-off-buddy cut after Ike Turner (!) hit on his wife.

9. I Won't Back Down

from Full Moon Fever

"Heyyyyyyy, bayy-bee! There ain't no easy way out!" Don't just sing it, SHOUT it.

8. Change of Heart

from Long After Dark

Hammering and vitriolic, this is Petty at his most wounded: "You were the moon and sun / You're just a loaded gun now." Campbell's guitar is just as rageful, trying to keep up with his ticked-off boss.

7. Don't Do Me Like That

from Damn the Torpedoes

Petty almost gave this one to Peter Wolf and the J. Geils Band. But this time, producer Iovine told him to keep it for himself.

6. Kings Highway

from 1991's Into the Great Wide Open

Another Petty subset: the happy-happy (well, for him) driving song. An instant mood-booster.

5. American Girl

from 1976's Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Oh, I had it at No. 1 for a while. That Bo Diddley beat, Campbell's relentless chiming riffs, the Gainesville reference ("Out on 441 like waves crashin' on the beach"). Takes guts to start a career with this and have the nerve to think you can top it.

4. The Waiting

from 1981's Hard Promises

"Yeah yeah! YEAH YEAH!" On the surface, Petty is trying to talk a woman into his bed. But there's some midtempo metaphysics going on, too, which is why this one is now part of pop-culture lexicon. "The waiting is the hardest part."

3. Even the Losers

from Damn the Torpedoes

Life lessons from Professor Petty: No matter who you are, at some point you'll be the underdog. Don't worry, though: It's an okay place to be, especially when you "get lucky sometimes."

2. Runnin' Down a Dream

from Full Moon Fever

From its roaring start to its hurricane finish, the No. 2 Petty Song is the No. 1 Driving Song. And that Campbell solo? Holy moly.

1. Free Fallin'

from Full Moon Fever

I remember where I was the first time I heard it: in the cheap-beer-slick back yard of a house party at Syracuse University, the spring of my sophomore year, 1989. It was like everyone knew the words instantly, as if we were born with "crazy 'bout Elvis" already lodged in our brains. That's called magic.

Contact Sean Daly at sdaly@tampabay.com. Follow @seandalypoplife.