Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Greatest Hits

iTunes Review

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Greatest Hits just might be one of the best American classic-rock compilations around. File it somewhere alongside the Eagles’ Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) and the Steve Miller Band’s Greatest Hits 1974 - 78. The hits are all here and they sound fantastic back-to-back. “American Girl” opens with that unmistakable Bo Diddley tempo as Petty contrasts his 12-string jangle against Mike Campbell’s sharpened, new-wave tones. That Byrdsy twin-tone returns on the biting power-pop hit “Listen to Her Heart.” Underdog anthem “Even the Losers” grooves on a British Invasion-tinged backbeat while “Don’t Come Around Here No More” blends icy synth-pop with the psychedelic drones of electric sitar. You can even hear some classic California canyon-twang seeping from the empowering “I Won’t Back Down” and the wistful “Free Fallin’.” But throughout his genre flirtations Petty’s signature West Coast rock ‘n’ roll remains a comfortable constant.