Into The Great Wide Open

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."

There never was a supergroup more super than the Traveling Wilburys. They had Jeff Lynne, the leader of ELO; they had Roy Orbison, the best pop singer of the '60s; they had Tom Petty, the best roots rocker this side of Bruce Springsteen; they had a Beatle and Bob Dylan, for crying out loud! It's impossible to picture a supergroup with a stronger pedigree than that (all that's missing is a Rolling Stone), but in another sense it's hard to call the Wilburys a true supergroup, since they arrived nearly two decades after the all-star craze of the '70s peaked, and they never had the self-important air of nearly all the other supergroups.

There never was a supergroup more super than the Traveling Wilburys. They had Jeff Lynne, the leader of ELO; they had Roy Orbison, the best pop singer of the '60s; they had Tom Petty, the best roots rocker this side of Bruce Springsteen; they had a Beatle and Bob Dylan, for crying out loud! It's impossible to picture a supergroup with a stronger pedigree than that (all that's missing is a Rolling Stone), but in another sense it's hard to call the Wilburys a true supergroup, since they arrived nearly two decades after the all-star craze of the '70s peaked, and they never had the self-important air of nearly all the other supergroups.

2CD FM broadcast captures Tom Petty s complete 1993 homecoming concert, his first show in Gainesville, Florida for 20 years. This show was just prior to the release of his greatest hits album and while he was in the process of moving to a new label. The greatest hits album also included 2 new recently recorded songs ; 'Mary Jane's Last Dance' and a cover of Thunderclap Newman's 'Something in the Air', both of which are included in this show. And the show was broadcast on the radio nationwide, in superb FM quality. So, here is Tom Petty's triumphant, yet somewhat overdue, return to Gainesville. Although some of the circulating FM versions of the show are shortened substantially, this is the full show in all its glory.

Consider The Best of Everything a companion piece to An American Treasure, the first posthumous Tom Petty compilation. Weighing in at four CDs, An American Treasure was designed as a gift to the devoted who were still in mourning. In contrast, The Best of Everything is aimed at the fan who didn't dig quite so deep, or perhaps to listeners who always liked Petty but never bothered to purchase an album. The Best of Everything relies on the hits that were largely absent on the box set but it takes a similar non-chronological approach to sequencing, a move that emphasizes Petty's consistency as both a songwriter and recording artist. This distinguishes The Best of Everything from 2000's Anthology: Through the Years, which also spanned two discs and contained four fewer songs than this 2019 set. Apart from that notable aesthetic choice, there is a considerable amount of overlap between the two double-disc collections – namely, all the hits Petty had with and without the Heartbreakers between 1976 and 1993, when he switched from his longtime home of MCA to Warner.