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Your Favorite Tom Petty Songs

Tom Petty.
Tim Mosenfelder
/
Getty Images
Tom Petty.

Tom Petty's recorded legacy spans nearly 50 years — from classic-rock standards to deep cuts that hit hard. His songs are wired into the American cultural psyche, whether they soundtracked a misspent youth, accompanied a few decades' worth of love and loss, or merely popped up in an unforgettable moment from Jerry Maguire. Petty's music has been everywhere, which means it's meant something to just about everyone.

To celebrate Petty's influence — not just on other musicians, but on moments in everyday lives — NPR Music has assembled a crowdsourced Spotify playlist containing some of the singer's career highlights. And we've added some of our own thoughts on the songs that have meant the most to us.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)
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