Top ten best deep cuts by Tom Petty

No. 5 - “FULL GROWN BOY” (2014)

From the final Heartbreakers albums, just a couple of years before Petty’s death, we now find him playing with a bossa nova beat and a final recognition of the dichotomy that always existed in the rocker who was capable of great warmth. “I like to move on slow and easy – Like a cat creeps through the grass – And the full moon seems to know me – ‘Cause I’ve found myself at last – I’m a full grown boy.”

Tench’s mellotron underpins the slinky rhythm, like that cat creeping through the grass, and Campbell plays as clean a guitar as there ever would for the Heartbreakers. The album was called Hypnotic Eye, and this was as hypnotic as it would get.

No. 4 - “TOO MUCH AIN’T ENOUGH” (1978)

Petty’s second album, You’re Gonna Get It!, is often seen as a minor step back from the raw power of his debut and the groundbreaking third album. But time has been kinder and the wealth of quality songs is apparent. “Too Much Ain’t Enough” demonstrates the Stones' influence that critics liked to call out in early Petty. It’s a fairly straightforward blues rock workout that showcases how much of a chameleon Campbell was with a guitar in his hands.

This wasn’t country rock, but it wasn’t exactly the Stones either. “American Girl,” from the first album may have begun carving out Petty’s unique brand of pop rock, but this is where I think we get the real evolution of southern rock. Not quite the hard blues of ZZ Top or the pop of “American Girl,” “Too Much Ain’t Enough” promised something familiar but with a twist. And just one year, that promise would be delivered upon with Damn the Torpedoes.