Well, they couldn’t have been any plainer with that title. Or more accurate, to be completely honest. The 38-song Best of Everything: etc., does indeed live up to its hyperbolic billing as the most complete anthology of hits and highlights from the late, great heartland rocker. Basically, if you can think of a Tom Petty song you heard on the radio, it’s probably here: From American Girl to Refugee to Free Fallin’ to The Last DJ, to name just a few. Along with all those Heartbreakers and solo essentials, there are a few cuts from his Mudcrutch reunion discs and the mandatory pair of unreleased tracks: An alternate version of the horn-sweetened southern-soul title track (originally cut for Southern Accents) and the Beatlesque, acoustic guitar-driven For Real. Naturally, everything is pristinely remastered and sounds cleaner and clearer than ever before. Like last year’s mammoth American Treasure box set, it’s all sequenced out of order. It doesn’t really make any more sense now than it did then, but at least they’re being consistent. And presumably, this set is intended to complement the box, which was dominated by rarities, live recordings and deep album cuts. Put them together and you really have the ultimate Petty compilation. And a title that would probably be way too long to fit into your iTunes window.
