The Real Five: Tom Petty
I think this may be the first posthumous "Real Five" I brought you and for that, I'm sorry. I generally knock these out when someone is touring or an album is highly anticipated. I do believe people are in the mood to hear a little Petty right now, so here's his biggest stuff.
Tom Petty had about two solid decades of radio hits. Since the mid 90's rock radio had moved on quite a bit, but some of his songs are still represented to this day. What I'm about to list are the Top Five Most Played Tracks In Rock Radio (not classic rock, classic hits, oldies or the All Tom Petty Station if there is one). In short, if you listen to FMX or stations like it around the country, these are the top five tracks.
- 1
Free Fallin'
It's an iconic song and an ironic video. Do you remember the skateboarding girl? If not, you can watch the video. And BTW, who didn't want to go to that pink Future Dogs stand? (after all, they were dogs of the future). This song was recorded in just two days.
- 2
Mary Jane's Last Dance
If you're going to include a song on a Greatest Hits Package, it better be awesome. Mary Jane's Last Dance was just that. The other "bonus track" on the Greatest Hits album was a cover of Thunderclap Newman's "Something In The Air" (probably not Petty's best choice for a cover).
- 3
Runnin' Down A Dream
Running Down a Dream is the second track from Full Moon Fever in the Top Five (I Won't Back Down would be number six if we went that far). The song uses what I'd call a "Peter Gunn" type riff, sped up. That kind of riff was really popular during the surf-rock era and Petty's crew kind of updated it for the 90's.
- 4
Refugee
Refugee was the second in a one-two punch off of Damn The Torpedoes, with the first being "Don't Do My Like That". The strength of these two tracks carried "Here Comes My Girl" and my personal favorite "Even The Losers" up the charts. The album is triple platinum in the U.S.
- 5
American Girl
American Girl was from Tom Petty's debut album which was all but ignored at the time. The song grew over time, including an iconic appearance on the soundtrack to Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
There was no video produced for this song, so I selected a very fitting version for this tribute. It's from the band's induction into the Rock Hall Of Fame in 2002. You can hear and see that that band lost nothing over time.
More From KFMX FM
