The 5 Best Rare Songs by Tom Petty

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers debuted in 1976, at a time when albums still mattered as complete works.

Whether solo or with his band (and sometimes both), Petty’s releases aren’t the ones you skim for singles. However, navigating 40 years of music is daunting, and the streaming services are designed to promote the most popular releases, leaving many worthwhile jams hidden from view.

The list below works around the algorithm and features five of Tom Petty’s rare gems.

Into the great wide open, here you go.

“Louisiana Rain” from Damn the Torpedoes (1979)

“Louisiana Rain” sounds like a Bob Dylan story with music from Bruce Springsteen’s The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle. It’s a departure from the ’70s FM rock that dominates the rest of the album and the Heartbreakers transform Petty’s folk narration into a drunken Gainesville, Florida, hymn.

Before Damn the Torpedoes, Petty took on his record label and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to exit his contract. Record labels and publishing companies have a long history of outrageously unfair agreements, and Petty refused to give in. He survived their lawyers and Damn the Torpedoes became the group’s first Top-10 album.

Louisiana rain is falling at my feet
Baby, I’m noticing the change as I move down the street
Louisiana rain is soaking through my shoes
I may never be the same when I reach Baton Rouge

“I Need To Know” from You’re Gonna Get It! (1978)

This sounds like a song Petty would have written after watching Blondie play at CBGB. It’s the Heartbreakers doing new wave and Mike Campbell blasts a Chuck Berry via Johnny Thunders guitar solo that only adds to the punk spirit of the track.

The jangly “Listen to Her Heart” is the album’s more well-known single, but “I Need To Know” shows Petty paid attention to the sounds around him at the time.

Who would’ve thought that you’d fall for his line
All of a sudden, it’s me on the outside

I need to know, I need to know
If you think you’re gonna leave then you better say so
I need to know, I need to know
Because I don’t know how long I can hold on
If you’re making me wait
If you’re leading me on

“Love Is a Long Road” from Full Moon Fever (1989)

Petty and Campbell borrow from The Who on “Love Is a Long Road.” Though it appears on Petty’s solo album, it would’ve sounded at home on Damn the Torpedoes. Co-produced with Jeff Lynne, a rhythmic synthesizer grounds the track with the kind of triumphant chords Pete Townshend perfected on “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” Also, Petty was a master at writing desperate young love anthems.

With Lynne, Full Moon Fever also features Roy Orbison and George Harrison, Petty’s bandmates from the Traveling Wilburys. MCA initially refused to release the album, claiming it lacked potential hits. “I Won’t Back Down,” “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” and “Free Fallin’” all appear on the album.

There were so many times
I would wake up at noon
Yeah, with my head spinning ’round
I would wait for the moon

“Don’t Fade on Me” from Wildflowers (1994)

Listen to Mike Campbell’s acoustic guitar playing here. On Wildflowers, Petty and his producer Rick Rubin wanted freedom from his band—though every Heartbreaker but drummer Stan Lynch appears on the album. “Don’t Fade on Me” is a stripped-down acoustic folk song and Campbell punctuates Petty’s disconcerting plea with Delta blues licks.

Lynch appeared on “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” recorded alongside Wildflowers for a greatest hits compilation. It was his final session with the band.

I remember you so clearly
The first one through the door
I return to find you drifting
Too far from the shore

“Swingin’” from Echo (1999)

“Swingin’” isn’t only one of Tom Petty’s best under-the-radar songs, it’s one of his best, period. Though it appeared as a single from Echo, it’s easily forgotten among Petty’s sprawling list of hits. He ends “Swingin’” with shout-outs to Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Sammy Davis, and Sonny Liston.

Longtime bassist and backing vocalist Howie Epstein died of a heroin overdose in 2003. Echo was his final album with the Heartbreakers though he’s not pictured on the album cover. He missed the photo shoot and Petty, having lost patience, told the photographer to shoot the cover without his bass player.

Well, she was standing by the highway
In her boots and silver spurs
Gonna hitchhike to the yellow moon
When a Cadillac stopped for her
And he said, “Hey, nice to meet you. Are you going my way?”
Yeah, that’s when it happened
The world caught fire that day

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Photo by Theo Wargo/WireImage for Manning, Selvage and Lee