Greatest Hits

Few rock ’n’ roll bands from the ‘70s survived the ‘80s and were positioned to clean up in the ‘90s like Tom Petty and his Heartbreakers. Petty has always had a knack for writing radio-friendly rock ’n’ roll singles, and Greatest Hits is a masterful showcase from beginning to end. Even the new recordings issued with this album—a cover of Thunderclap Newman’s “Something in the Air” and Petty’s own “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”—turned out to be commercially viable. If you lived through this era, you’ll recognize the flow of this chronologically assembled collection. For others, it’s a mind-boggling set of classic tunes. The Byrds-like “American Girl,” the sultry “Breakdown” and “Listen to Her Heart,” and the flat-out rocker “I Need To Know” represent the earliest years, while “Refugee” and the three songs that follow symbolize Petty’s definitive commercial breakthrough. “The Waiting” was a solid follow-up. “I Won’t Back Down,” “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” and “Free Fallin’” took Petty solo, while “Learning to Fly” and “Into the Great Wide Open” proved the band weren't done either.