Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers – Anthology - Through The Years

A fairly comprehensive collection of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers best material featuring most of their singles as well as their most popular album tracks spanning a career from the first album in 1976 through to 1991's Great Wide Open. In addition, it includes perhaps their best ever none studio album track Mary Janes Last Dance that first appeared on1993's Greatest Hits Compilation as well as Waiting for Tonight from the Playback box set & a previously unreleased track Surrender, all well worth their inclusion. This remastered album also has an excellent sound quality. However, it inexplicably excludes Anything that's Rock n Roll (their first hit single & the song that first drew me to Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers over 40 years ago) & a couple of personal favourites of mine, All Mixed Up and Runaway Trains both from the underrated Let me Up (I've Had Enough) album. The fact that these songs have been omitted for more obscure album tracks, a fairly uninspiring live cover version of So you want to be a Rock n Roll Star & a duet with Stevie Nicks that has always been regarded as a Nicks song (it appeared on her solo album Bella Donna) is the one blemish on this almost perfect collection that nonetheless helps to define Tom Petty's career and showcase his remarkable back catalogue.

When Tom Petty (Gainesville Florida, 1950) heard The Rolling Stones for the first time as a teenager, he thought: ' Hey, I can do that too '. With his backing band The Heartbreakers he shares, just like the Stones, the love for simple but effective bluesy rock music. After a long and unsuccessful start-up phase, including the Group Mudcrutch, Petty in 1979 hits the jackpot with Damn The Torpedoes, the debut album by Tom Petty The Heartbreakers &. Two singles, Don't Do Me Like That and Refugee, end up in the American top-40. Petty narrates with his drawling voice about the dreams and failures of ordinary Americans. Into The Great Wide Open (1991) is another milestone in petty's career, both artistically and commercially.