The Challenge

A career-spanning playlist from Tom Petty, including both Heartbreakers (13) and solo albums (3). I chose one track from each album, trying to highlight non-singles or, as Tom calls them, bangers.

The Wild One, Forever
Album: Tom Petty + The Heartbreakers (1976)
Bangers: Breakdown, American Girl
Quick Hit: Petty would later admit he sang often of a girl from his high school years he always wanted to date. She appears here for the first time but remerges on Even The Losers, which is a banger describing the same night.

Baby’s A Rock and Roller
Album: You’re Gonna Get It (1978)
Bangers: I Need to Know, Listen to Her Heart
Quick Hit: This closing track sounds like a live cut. It’s a fun way to end a somewhat forgettable second album.

What Are You Doin’ In My Life
Album: Damn the Torpedoes (1979)
Bangers: Refugee, Here Comes My Girl, Even the Losers, Don’t Do Me Like That
Quick Hit: How was this not a banger? Well, it was probably fifth in line on this stacked album.

Kings Road
Album: Hard Promises (1981)
Bangers: The Waiting, A Woman In Love (It’s Not Me)
Quick Hit: Just a classic sounding Heartbreakers song from the early 80s.

Change of Heart
Album: Long After Dark (1982)
Bangers: You Got Lucky
Quick Hit: Howie Epstein joined the Heartbreakers starting with this album and immediately became Petty’s secret weapon. His harmonies in this chorus would be replicated and become a staple in many of now-famous choruses throughout the 80s and 90s.

Southern Accents
Album: Southern Accents (1985)
Bangers: Don’t Come Around Here No More, Rebels
Quick Hit: Southern Accents was an attempted and half-aborted concept album about the south. This track closes the most interesting first half of any of his albums. The bridge and lyrics hit home.

Jammin’ Me
Album: Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough) (1987)
Bangers: None
Quick Hit: I’m cheating here because this was the lead single and still gets some rare love on classic rock stations, but Jammin’ Me should have made the Greatest Hits. Despite some dated references, it, um, jams.

A Face in the Crowd
Album: Full Moon Fever (1989)
Bangers: Free Fallin’, I Won’t Back Down, Runnin’ Down a Dream, Yer So Bad
Quick Hit: Just an absurd first solo album. There’s lots to pick from here.

Kings Highway
Album: Into the Great Wide Open (1991)
Bangers: Learning to Fly, Into the Great Wide Open,
Quick Hit: I nearly selected You and I Will Meet Again, but decided that Kings Highway is an overshadowed banger. It’s sandwiched between the two lead singles and never had its proper due.

Honey Bee
Album: Wildflowers (1994)
Bangers: Learning to Fly, Into the Great Wide Open,
Quick Hit: Just a fun tune buried in the middle of Petty’s best album.

Room at the Top
Album: Echo (1999)
Bangers: None
Quick Hit: Holy shit. This album is great. It’s dark. It’s depressing. Petty was shacked up in a cabin and addicted to heroin while writing this. It’s not normal Petty. It’s Blood on the Tracks. It’s The Lillywhite Sessions. This is not meant for the summer BBQ. I gained more respect for this album than any other as a result of this listening spree.

When Money Becomes King
Album: The Last DJ (2002)
Bangers: None
Quick Hit: It’s the cynical opposite to Into the Great Wide Open. It’s the best song from his worst album.

Flirting With Time
Album: Highway Companion (2006)
Bangers: None
Quick Hit: You get the feeling he could write this type of song in his sleep by this point in his career. The chorus is fun despite what AllMusic calls a laid-back yet melancholy solo album.

Good Enough
Album: Mojo (2010)
Bangers: None
Quick Hit: The late-era blues album is an outlier in the catalog. Good Enough reminds me of I Want You.

Shadow People
Album: Hypnotic Eye (2014)
Bangers: None
Quick Hit: The last output from Petty sounds like a muscular throwback to his early albums. There’s some good music here for a fourth-decade release.