10 Awesome Albums Made Entirely Of Outtakes
8. Playback - Tom Petty
Tom Petty has made a career out of being one of the most prolific songwriters in the rock world. Up until his tragic death in 2017, Petty was always somewhat of a workaholic who put his lifesblood into crafting the best songs he could. While his albums offer plenty of pop rock classics, Playback shows just how much greatness was hiding underneath the surface.
This box set of some of Petty's best work provides a nice comprehensive study of the Heartbreakers' long career, but the last CDs of B-sides show fantastic bright spots that may have gone overlooked by fans. While there are definitely some goofs to be found on the record like "Heartbreakers Beach Party," other songs stand out as some of the best writing Petty had ever done.
A good road map to it is to find the songs that correspond with his best albums, with the beautiful "Casa Dega" being a discarded tune from Damn the Torpedoes. There are also fantastic forgotten singles like the LA riot reflection in "Peace in LA" and the amazing "Waiting for Tonight," which is so good it's a wonder how it didn't end up on his masterpiece Full Moon Fever. It may be a bit of a long winded listen, but this is an album that anyone mildly interested in Petty needs to hear.