Into The Great Wide Open

For the fan that wants more than the superb single-disc Greatest Hits yet doesn't want to delve into actual albums or the exhaustive, rarities-heavy box set Playback, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and MCA Records offered the double-disc Anthology: Through the Years in the fall of 2000. This set basically offers all the singles and album rock radio favorites, with a couple of odd selections here and there and one new song, "Surrender."

Greatest Hits is a lean yet complete overview of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers' biggest singles from their first prime. Sure, it's possible to pinpoint a few great songs missing, but the group had a lot of great songs during the late '70s and '80s. This rounds up the biggest hits from that era, and in doing so, it turns into a succinct summary of the band at the top of its game. Everything from "American Girl" to "Free Fallin'" is included, with 16 tracks proving that Petty was one of the best rockers of his time. The 2008 revamp swapped out a cover of Thunderclap Newman's "Something in the Air" that was added to the 1993 comp as collector bait for fans, and substitutes Petty's duet with Stevie Nicks, "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around."