This was another song that didn’t make the list at first, as I somehow sort of forgot about it. The moral of the story is that kids are sponges, which is something you should always keep in mind if you want to avoid being the parent of a young child who can’t stop singing about drugs. The song features the fairly iconic lyrics “So let’s get to the point/Let’s roll another joint,” which he didn’t really think too much of until he dropped off his daughter at preschool and was informed she kept singing that particular line over the course of the day when he picked her up. I have a buddy who did exactly that while on a bike ride with his daughter, and at some point, this came on.

“You Don’t Know How It Feels” is also at the center of a cautionary tale for parents who want to introduce their kids to Petty. Petty wrote and arranged the song himself, initially putting down that workingman’s beat on a drum machine before bringing it to Wildflowers‘ producer Rick Rubin. The backbeat is doing some legit blue-collared work hammering along through the entire song and rarely straying from the beat. There are very many Petty tunes out there with a stomp to them but “You Don’t Know How It Feels” is one of them. What I do care about is the guilt I’ve dealt with since stealing this CD from my buddy Bryan a couple of decades ago. I don’t know why I did it I but I’ve felt terrible about ever since and am glad to finally get that off of my chest. This song would go on to become a hit of its own, and while some people may object to it being ranked so low, I don’t really care. However, the compilation did feature two new tracks, one of which was “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” (the other was a cover of Thunderclap Newman’s “Something in the Air,” which was replaced by”Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” a duet with Stevie Nicks that was released when Greatest Hits was reissued in 2008. Given how many hits they had racked up at that point, there was no shortage of candidates to pick from so it’s no wonder the record would go platinum 12 times on its way to becoming Petty’s best-selling album, going platinum 12 times. In 1993, Petty and company released their first greatest hits album (creatively titled Greatest Hits). This list of best Tom Petty songs is mine and it starts now. Also, music is subjective (especially with an artist like Petty) and everyone has their own unique lists of favorite/best songs. When embarking on such an adventure, that line is inevitably crossed on multiple occasions. So 70 it is!īefore we get into it, I need to issue the obligatory song/album ranking disclaimer and mention that there is a fine line between “favorite” songs and “best” songs. I was going to do 50, but seeing as how Tom Petty would have turned 70 this month, it was was just calling out to me as the number to target. To celebrate the occasion, I felt it was only fitting to also damn the torpedoes (so to speak) and go ahead and rank Tom Petty’s 70 best songs. So yeah, it’s a big month for the Petty Hive. One of his best albums, Damn The Torpedoes, came out on October 19th, and a few days before that, Wildflowers & All The Rest (a deluxe version of Wildflowers) will be released later this month. October 2nd marked three years since the death of the legendary rocker, who would have turned 70 on October 20th. Well, friends, here in Tom Petty Country, October is something of a big month for us.

Tom petty songs list