10 Underrated Hard Rock Songs Of The '80s

10. Something Big - Tom Petty

In the world of hard rock, Tom Petty seems like a pretty tame offering. While the man has certainly earned his place in history as one of the founders of heartland rock, not many of his rockers can really be qualified as heavy. Petty may have earned his stripes in the '70s, but he emerged in the next decade with an axe to grind.

On the surface, Hard Promises isn't all that different from Petty's classic style, but Something Big is a lot darker than any of his counterparts. Tuning his guitar down low and delivering a mean country riff, this tune has a tortured soul from the minute it starts, as it tells a story that seems ripped directly out of a Spaghetti Western. Petty was already a brilliant storyteller at this point, but the way he dissects those who will do anything to make a name for themselves feels like it belongs on an old-time outlaw tune.

With the rest of the Heartbreakers adding their own demented spin on the music, this left turn proved Petty to be a master of just about any rock genre you threw at him. The heartland rock is still accounted for, but this country hymn of doom is a dark world that Johnny Cash would have recognized in an instant.