For Tom Petty, the ’80s began on complicated ground.Just before the new decade started, a significant conflict was struck up when Petty lost his publishing rights as the result of his original label, ABC, being sold to MCA. He fought back by refusing to hand over the tapes for Damn the Torpedoes until a new deal was made that afforded him his publishing back. At the end of it, Petty knew that not only did the industry consider him a rising and highly profitable star, but that they would have no problem ripping him off to benefit from it.”As soon as they [MCA] thought my action might set an industry precedent,” Petty told Rolling Stone in February of 1980, “they rolled out the big guns. That’s when I realized these guys were mean. It was like they were after me just because I had the potential to do something. For that, they would destroy me — fuck up my brain to where I couldn’t do it anymore – before they’d let me do it for anyone else.”Put another way: Petty was undeniably a force to be reckoned with in the ’80s in terms of dedication to his career and integrity as a professional artist, not to mention his songwriting chops were only growing stronger by the year. Below, we’re taking a look at the Top 20 ’80s Tom Petty Songs, taken from his studio and live albums with the Heartbreakers, plus his debut solo release.20. “Don’t Come Around Here No More”From: Southern Accents (1985)Fun fact: this writer once won a brand new turntable signed by a member of Fleetwood Mac via a holiday giveaway contest in her hometown, in which the following question was posed: What Petty song was originally intended for Stevie Nicks to record? The answer was “Don’t Come Around Here No More” and the signature was by Nicks, who added on some hearts and the words “Love Allways [sic].” More on Nicks later…19. “Needles and Pins” (Live With Stevie Nicks)From: Pack Up the Plantation: Live! (1985)In 1985, Petty and the Heartbreakers released their very first live album, Pack Up the Plantation: Live! Most of it was recorded at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, with a few exceptions, including Nicks’ and Petty’s cover of “Needles and Pins,” which was written by Jack Nitzsche and Sonny Bono. This was taped at another Los Angeles venue, the Forum, in 1981, the same year Petty and Nicks guested on each other’s studio albums, but we’ll get to that in a bit.18. “Change of Heart”From: Long After Dark (1982)Several years before Petty and Jeff Lynne would become official collaborators, Petty had the ELO frontman in mind when he penned “Change of Heart.” “I wanted to do something that had that kind of guitar, and that was the kick-off point,” Petty recalled for the 2005 book Conversations With Tom Petty. If you’re familiar with ELO albums or Lynne’s solo work, you know exactly what kind of guitar that means – lush, strong riffs that carry the tune.17. “Jammin’ Me”From: Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough) (1987)If we had to point to one Petty album that most embodied the sound of the ’80s, it would be 1987’s Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough), which featured plenty of synths. But you know you’re doing something right when Bob Dylan casually offers to write you some lyrics, which is how the words to “Jammin’ Me” came to be. Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell had written the music, Petty and Dylan provided the pop culture-centric lyrics, and the result was a vibrant opening track.16. “Shout” (Isley Brothers Cover)From: Pack Up the Plantation: Live! (1985)If you’ve ever listened to Petty’s Sirius XM Radio show Buried Treasure, in which the rocker played various artists from his own record collection, you know that he had a wide palette that ranged from country classics like Hank Williams to soul legends like the Isley Brothers. The Heartbreakers started putting their own spin on the latter artist’s “Shout” at their concerts starting in 1977, but the live version listed here comes from a 1983 show at the Coliseum in Richfield, Ohio.15. “The Apartment Song”From: Full Moon Fever (1989)In 1989, Petty released his first solo album, Full Moon Fever. “The Apartment Song” lands on side two of the album, a song Rolling Stone described back then as “folk rock, but with a Chuck Berry edge.” Another way of looking at it: the instrumental arrangement sounds an awful lot like that in “Peggy Sue” by Buddy Holly, another of Petty’s heroes. (Bonus: there’s also a duet version of “The Apartment Song” that Petty recorded with Nicks.)14. “It’ll All Work Out”From: Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough) (1987)A common theme in Petty’s lyricism was the idea that in spite of hardship, resilience wins out and people have a remarkable tendency to emerge on the other side of tough times. That’s the kind of comforting message in 1987’s “It’ll All Work Out,” which Petty wrote as his first marriage was beginning to fall apart. He sang the song into a cassette tape and took it to Campbell, who had a studio in his house. “And I said, ‘Could you just make it a record?'” Petty said in Conversations With Tom Petty. “‘Because I don’t have time, I can’t deal with it mentally, but I think it’s a really good song.’ And I gave him the tune. And when I saw him again at the proper sessions, he brought in the track, and he had done the whole track, and I sang it, and we were done with it. That’s never happened before or since.”13. “You Got Lucky”From: Long After Dark (1982)”You Got Lucky” marked the first time Petty incorporated a synthesizer into a song, which became an iconic riff for keyboardist Benmont Tench to play for years to come. It was also written to a homemade drum loop. “The drummer would actually go out and play, then we’d cut the tape and tape the loop together,” Campbell explained to Songfacts in 2003. “We ran it around the room over some mic stands and through the tape heads, and then printed that for three or four minutes and then recorded the song over that drum loop. The guitar solo was Tom’s idea, he suggested we do a Ennio Morricone guitar sound, kind of a vibratto arm strat kind of solo. Sort of a surf guitar with a tremolo arm, like a Clint Eastwood movie, a Good, the Bad and the Ugly kind of thing.”12. “Insider”From: Hard Promises (1981)There is much to appreciate about the more famous ’80s Petty/Nicks duet, “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.” But we would argue that the tender “Insider” from 1981’s Hard Promises deserves more love. For his entire life, Petty would never admit that he and Nicks were anything other than exceptionally good friends, but there is something perfect about the two of them singing “you’ll become his legacy / his quiet world of white and gold” only a few years after Nicks sang about a “Gold Dust Woman.”11. “I Won’t Back Down”From: Full Moon Fever (1989)That “I Won’t Back Down,” one of Petty’s most recognizable and beloved songs, lands at No. 11 on this list speaks to Petty’s sheer songwriting prowess – there’s that much impressive material. Following Petty’s death in 2017, playing the song became a tradition at Florida Gators football games at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Petty’s hometown, and practically everyone sings along.10. “Southern Accents”From: Southern Accents (1985)Petty and the Heartbreakers became so heavily associated with the California scene and sound that you’d be forgiven for forgetting that they hailed from a southern town that had less than 100,000 people living in it at the time the band formed. Southern Accents, from 1985, saw the band reaching back to some of those roots, a place of both rebellion and contrition, of drunkards and dreamers. “I got my own way of livin,'” Petty sings in the album’s title track, defending his foundation with a sense of humility and nostalgia.9. “Straight Into Darkness”From: Long After Dark (1982)It’s hard to say how good Petty and the Heartbreakers would have been without Tench on piano, who was something of a teenage prodigy who somehow only got more talented as he grew older. Tench was key — pun absolutely intended — in the overall sound of Long After Dark and in “Straight Into Darkness” specifically, which started out more guitar-based before Petty decided to hand things over to the piano. “Sometimes the songs won’t reveal themselves to you until you find the right sound and the right recording of it. And that was one like that,” Petty said for Conversations. “You couldn’t really get everybody grooving the same way until we went over to the piano, and then everybody instinctually found what to play.”8. “A Woman in Love (It’s Not Me)”From: Hard Promises (1981)One thing about Petty is that he knew how to write a great, big chorus, like the one in “A Woman in Love (It’s Not Me).” An honorable mention is due to Duck Dunn of Stax Records fame, who played the subtle yet highly effective bass part in this song. “I like the way the track breathes,” Tench said of the song to Songfacts in 2015. “There is a lot of space, there are a lot of places where there’s only drums, bass and one guitar playing with a vocal. I like the air in that song.”7. “The Waiting”From: Hard Promises (1981)Opening Hard Promises with “The Waiting” was a smart choice, with its bellowing first few bars. “The Waiting,” as one 1981 review of the album wrote, “somehow made that good hurt that comes with loving seem revelatory.” And once again, Petty seems to sing right to and at you in the bridge of the song — “don’t let it kill you, baby,” he encourages, “don’t let it get to you.”6. “Breakdown” (Live)From: Pack Up the Plantation: Live! (1985)The only thing better than “Breakdown” is a nearly eight-minute live version of “Breakdown” with a sweet saxophone solo by Jimmy Zavala. Petty only managed to sing the first line of the song before the audience took over for two verses and chorus, which is loud and clear on the recording. “You’re gonna put me out of a job,” he joked from the stage.5. “Love Is a Long Road”From: Full Moon Fever (1989)We may have to consider making an entirely separate list titled Tom Petty Songs Great for Highway Driving, which would most definitely include “Love Is a Long Road.” Of course, this makes sense given that Campbell, who co-wrote the song, was inspired by a motorcycle he owned then. “I was really into that frame of mind,” the guitarist told Rolling Stone. “This feels like a motorcycle shifting gears.”4. “Never Be You”From: Previously Unreleased From Long After Dark (1982)We’re bending the rules here just a little bit. Petty and Tench wrote “Never Be You” during the Long After Dark era, but instead of using it themselves, it was recorded and released by Maria McKee from Lone Justice in 1983. Two years later, Rosanne Cash recorded it. Petty and the Heartbreakers’ version did not come out until the deluxe edition of Long After Dark was released in October of 2024. Technically though, this is an ’80s Petty song, and it’s great.3. “The Best of Everything”From: Southern Accents (1985)Petty once described “The Best of Everything” as “one of the best songs I ever wrote.” We happen to agree. Acknowledgment should be made to the late Robbie Robertson, co-producer of Southern Accents and the man responsible for arranging that soul-stirring horn section, pus the enlistment of Garth Hudson on keyboard and Richard Manuel on backing vocals.2. “Runnin’ Down a Dream”From: Full Moon Fever (1989)Yes, Full Moon Fever is a solo Petty album, but it has Campbell’s fingerprints all over it. The guitarist also co-wrote “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” a song that embodies the feeling of flying down the freeway with the windows down and the radio up. Campbell wrote the famous descending guitar part, and Petty in turn showed it to Jeff Lynne, who said “That might be one of those last riffs left.”1. “Free Fallin'”From: Full Moon Fever (1989)”Free Fallin'” speaks for itself really. Once again, there’s a massive, anthemic chorus that’s easy to sing along to, and an air of courage about it. It became one of Petty’s biggest hits of his entire career, even though he and Lynne wrote it about as casually as the other songs on Full Moon Fever, proof that great songwriting came as easily to Petty as a duck takes to water. “There’s not a day that goes by that someone doesn’t hum ‘Free Falli” to me, or I don’t hear it somewhere,” Petty would later say. “But it was really only 30 minutes of my life.”The Best Song From Every Tom Petty AlbumThere’s a common thread running through Tom Petty’s catalog, and it’s the Heartbreakers. Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso