Tom Petty

Let this 16-song collection dispel any demons of doubt: Tom Petty is one of the most recognizable rock songwriters of his time. For the casual fan, this is riddled with all the most popular stuff. It's the two bonus tracks, "Mary Jane's Last Dance" (which produced a video starring Kim Basinger as the corpse bride) and cover of Thunderclap Newman's "Something in the Air," that make it a must for collectors.

Sometimes it's hard to remember what a breath of fresh air the gap-spanning MTV figurehead was in 1976. So revisit this automatic multiplatinum, a treasury of power pop that doesn't know its name--snappy songs! Southern beats! gee! Like Billy Joel, say, or the Police, his secret isn't that he's a natural singles artist--it's that he's too shallow to merit full concentration except when he gets it all right, and maybe not then. Petty is the formalist of the ordinary guy, taking his musical pleasure in roots, branches, commerce, art, whatever gets him going without demanding anything too fancy of his brain or his rear end. Footloose by habit and not what you'd call a ladies' man, he often feels confused or put upon, and though he wishes the world were a better place, try to take what he thinks is his and he won't back down. He has one great virtue--his total immersion in rock and roll. (Grade - A-)