The Best of Everything: The Definitive Career Spanning Hits Collection 1976-2016 (2019)
Disc One
1. Free Fallin'
2. Mary Jane's Last Dance
3. You Wreck Me
4. I Won't Back Down
5. Saving Grace
6. You Don't Know How it Feels
7. Don't Do Me Like That
8. Listen to Her Heart
9. Breakdown
10.Walls (Circus)
11.The Waiting
12.Don't Come Around Here No More
13.Southern Accents
14.Angel Dream (No.2)
15.Dreamville
16.I should Have Known It
17.Refugee
18.American Gril
19.The Best of Everything (Alternate Version)
Disc Two
1. Wildflowers
2. Learning to Fly
3. Here Comes My Girl
4. The Last DJ
5. I Need to Know
6. Scare Easy
7. You Got Lucky
8. Runnin' Down a Dream
9. American Dream Plan B
10.Stop Draggin' My Heart Around
11.Trailer
12.Into the Great Wide Open
13.Room at the Top
14.Square One
15.Jammin' Me
16.Even the Losers
17.Hungry No More
18.I Forgive it All
19.For Real
Exactly what it claims to be—a full-throttle greatest hits package that leaves very little on the cutting room floor. Sure, a couple of minor charting singles are MIA, but nothing anyone’s going to lose sleep over. The core material is all here, and then some. A few Mudcrutch tracks are smartly folded into the mix, and there’s even an unreleased cut tossed in for good measure. If you were fond of the original Greatest Hits from the early '90s (and let’s face it, most people were), this set renders that one largely obsolete.
The sequencing is sharp, the sound is pristine, and the career-spanning scope reminds you just how much range Petty really had. He was one of the rare artists who never needed a dramatic reinvention—he just kept refining what he did best. From Byrds-inspired jangle to Wilbury-flavored pop to dusty Americana, it’s all on display here.
If there’s a quibble, it might be with the title. The Best of Everything feels a little grandiose, even for a guy whose catalog can mostly back it up. But that’s a minor gripe. For longtime fans and newcomers alike, this is as close to a definitive summary as we’re likely to get. And truth be told, it lives up to the name better than most would dare try.
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