On the heels of the release of the acclaimed rarities box set An American Treasure, a new career-spanning anthology will arrive in CD, vinyl, and digital formats on November 16 from the late Tom Petty. The Best of Everything, on the Geffen/UMe label, is subtitled The Definitive Career-Spanning Hits Collection 1976-2016 and features 38 tracks from the soulful rock-and-roller, including two previously unreleased cuts. Petty's solo work is heard alongside his recordings with both The Heartbreakers and Mudcrutch. (Alas, Petty's time in The Traveling Wilburys isn't addressed.) This marks the first time that material from all of Petty's label affiliations has been collected under one roof.
The Best of Everything compiles most of Petty's biggest hits but lacks two of his top 40 entries, "Change of Heart" (No. 21, 1983) and the Stevie Nicks duet "Needles and Pins" (No. 37, 1986). That said, the rest of Petty's biggest chart successes are here, such as "Don't Do Me Like That" (No. 10, 1979), "Refugee" (No. 15, 1980), "You Got Lucky" (No. 20, 1982), "I Won't Back Down" (No. 12, 1989), "Learning to Fly" (No. 28, 1991), "Last Dance with Mary Jane" (No. 14, 1993), and "You Don't Know How It Feels" (No. 13, 1994). Every one of his albums is represented by at least one track. Two previously unreleased songs debut here: an alternate version of "The Best of Everything" from 1985's Southern Accents, and the never-before-heard "For Real." (An alternate of "The Best of Everything" is also present on the second disc of An American Treasure, but this is a different version.)
The non-chronologically sequenced compilation boasts a new essay penned especially for this set by filmmaker and rock historian Cameron Crowe. The simple cover artwork is in the style of Petty's early single picture sleeves like "Don't Do Me Like That" and "The Waiting." All 38 songs have been newly remastered from "pristine transfers of the original multi-track masters." The Best of Everything will be issued as a 2-CD or 4-LP set, with the latter available in black and clear vinyl versions, as well as on all digital platforms.
Look for The Best of Everything on November 16 from Geffen/UMe. You'll find the track listing and pre-order links below!
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, The Best of Everything (Geffen/UMe, 2018) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
CD 1
- Free Fallin' - Tom Petty
- Mary Jane's Last Dance - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
- You Wreck Me - Tom Petty
- I Won't Back Down - Tom Petty
- Saving Grace - Tom Petty
- You Don't Know How It Feels - Tom Petty
- Don't Do Me Like That - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
- Listen to Her Heart - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
- Breakdown - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
- Walls (Circus) - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
- The Waiting - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
- Don't Come Around Here No More - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
- Southern Accents - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
- Angel Dream (No.2) - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
- Dreamville - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
- I Should Have Known It - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
- Refugee - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
- American Girl - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
- The Best of Everything (Alternate Version) - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
CD 2
- Wildflowers - Tom Petty
- Learning to Fly - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
- Here Comes My Girl - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
- The Last DJ - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
- I Need to Know - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
- Scare Easy - Mudcrutch
- You Got Lucky - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
- Runnin' Down A Dream - Tom Petty
- American Dream Plan B - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
- Stop Draggin' My Heart Around (featuring Stevie Nicks) - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
- Trailer - Mudcrutch
- Into the Great Wide Open - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
- Room at the Top - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
- Square One - Tom Petty
- Jammin' Me - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
- Even the Losers - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
- Hungry No More - Mudcrutch
- I Forgive It All - Mudcrutch
- For Real - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
CD 1, Tracks 1 & 4 and CD 2, Track 8 from Full Moon Fever, MCA MCAD-6253, 1989
CD 1, Track 2 from Tom Petty's Greatest Hits, MCA Records MCAD-10813, 1993
CD 1, Tracks 3 & 6 and CD 2, Track 1 from Wildflowers, Warner Bros. 9 45759-2, 1994
CD 1, Track 5 and CD 2, Track 14 from Highway Companion, American Recordings 44285-2, 2006
CD 1, Tracks 7 & 17 and CD 2, Tracks 3 & 16 from Damn the Torpedoes, MCA Records MCA-1486, 1979
CD 1, Track 8 and CD 2, Track 5 from You're Gonna Get It!, Shelter DA-52029, 1978
CD 1, Tracks 9 & 18 from Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Shelter SRL-52006, 1976
CD 1, Tracks 10 & 14 from She's the One: Songs and Music from the Motion Picture, Warner Bros. 9 46285-2, 1996
CD 1, Track 11 from Hard Promises, MCA/Backstreet BSR-5160, 1981
CD 1, Tracks 12-13 from Southern Accents, MCA Records MCA-5486. 1985
CD 1, Track 15 and CD 2, Track 4 from The Last DJ, Warner Bros. 9 47955-2, 2002
CD 1, Track 16 from Mojo, Reprise 523971-2, 2010
CD 1, Track 17 and CD 2, Track 17 previously unreleased
CD 2, Tracks 2 & 12 from Into the Great Wide Open, MCA Records MCAD-10317, 1991
CD 2, Track 6 from Mudcrutch, Reprise 455868-2, 2008
CD 2, Track 7 from Long After Dark, MCA/Backstreet BSR-5360, 1982
CD 2, Track 9 from Hypnotic Eye, Reprise 544202-2, 2014
CD 2, Track 10 from Stevie Nicks, Bella Donna, Modern MR 38-139, 1981
CD 2, Tracks 11, 17-18 from Mudcrutch 2, Reprise 554371-2, 2016
CD 2, Track 13 from Echo, Warner Bros. 9 47294-1, 1999
CD 2, Track 15 from Let Me Up (I've Had Enough), MCA Records MCA-5836, 1987
JG says
I guess the one redeeming factor of this set is that it's the first (long-overdue) collection to include his WB years, but considering the last TP archival release ain't even two weeks old, AND this is your standard "generic greatest hits plus some new stuff to hook the hardcores," AND that one of those two new tracks is a different-version-from-that-other-different-version that was included in the aforementioned release from last month, this whole thing just reeks of your standard craven milking of a dead rock star. Here's hoping Tom's spirit is giving the execs a big ol' two-finger salute.
Bill says
Cheese with that whine? Nobody is holding a gun to your head to buy this. It's a great selection of Petty's work. I can't wait to own it on vinyl.
Mark Joy says
The first comment is my opinion as well. No one is holding a gun to my head? I really dont think that is appropriate. The titles are good, the compilation noble. But Tom Petty deserves lossless audio on such a great lifetime of huge successes and consistent hard work. In the recent years he was a stiff advocate for high resolution releases. Watching DVD-A die on the vine and the lack of support from SACD to be embraced, propelled his drive to encourage Blu-Ray recordings with his own productions as well as campaigning for other musicians to do likewise. Lossless codecs and the multichannel (6) format are unbeatable. But Redbook is cheaper and popular for those who consider it to be background noise. The audiophile is starved and teased by hollow promises given out under the term “remastered”. It is frustrating.
Rob C says
Love this forthcoming collection - really wish it was 3 discs but I’m sure that’s coming at some point.
Shame they couldn’t find room for A Higher Place, Waiting For The Night And Change Of Heart but this will serve as a nice collection alongside the previous 2cd anthology.
Loiuse says
Love the song you're so bad it's never on any of the other albums maybe it'll be on one of the greatest hits albums and of course honey bee from accents and I really enjoy that one song Mary Jane's Last Dance room at the top of the world tonight but you really a sort that I had similar situation it's it's sad but real
Shaun says
“Honey Bee” is on Wildflowers.
Larry Davis says
What they coulda done is add "A Woman In Love (It's Not Me)" (my fave Petty song and a minor chart hit to boot) and his cover of Thunderclap Newman's "Something In The Air", the lone exclusive from the first and now-redundant "Greatest Hits", freeing it up basically, and this set would be 100% perfect... Still pretty great as is, plus Adria Petty was behind this set, so no, it's not messing with his legacy, although close after the 4CD set is a drop weird, maybe Universal wanted to be part of this as the box was on Warner/Reprise...there MUST be some kind of arrangement between the 2 labels over Petty's catalogue, to play nice and license from each other when one's project calls for it...its obvious that they each are not giving up their piece to keep it all together under one roof...so they have to have some kind of setup with the Petty catalogue and vault...
Jim Arcand says
You don't see any willburys because Bob Dylan is notorious not allowing other people release his work
Mark Jerome says
By published accounts we've read, "Southern Accents" was originally conceived as a double album and there exist unreleased songs from those sessions.
Likewise, Petty was purportedly working on an expanded "Wildflowers" with unreleased material from that album's sessions.
That's the stuff we want. Far less interested in repackaging of well-worn classic tracks and more interested in the unreleased gems.
richard wilberforce says
Mark Jerome
Never saw the reference to Southern Accents being a double set, but yes on wildflowers
I agree with JG, having just bought the Hi-res American Treasure box set i am pissed that they are releasing another set with unreleased tracks. From the guy who was famously anti record companies ripping off the fans. As someone pointed out, hope TP is giving the record company a big middle finger for this con-job
Off to the torrent sites for me.....
Brad says
Postponed until February 2nd. Probably not a bad mood, so you don't have two new multi-disc Tom Petty retrospectives from two different record labels competing with each other.