3 of the Best Heartbreak Anthems by Tom Petty Proving His Band Had the Right Name

Few bands are more aptly named than Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers. When Petty and his band emerged from Gainesville, Florida, in 1976, they seemed to put the “heart” in heartland rock. And Petty wrote with a chip on his shoulder, leaving behind a songbook containing many of rock’s greatest heartbreak anthems, as you’ll see below.

“Breakdown”

You might think this easy groove isn’t the right approach for a song describing the exact moment a relationship falls apart. But Petty’s narrator is already resigned to the breakup. The Heartbreakers’ laid-back vibe echoes Petty’s. The time for hope or a chance at saving the romance has passed. “Breakdown” arrived in 1976, and from the gate, Petty established himself as one of America’s great songwriters.

There is no sense in pretending,
Your eyes give you away.
Something inside you is feeling like I do,
We said all there is to say.

“Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” with Stevie Nicks

Co-written with guitarist Mike Campbell, this bitter hit was first recorded as a Heartbreakers track. Producer Jimmy Iovine suggested a duet with Stevie Nicks, and it became the lead single from her solo debut, Bella Donna. Of course, Nicks, like the rest of Fleetwood Mac, knows a thing or two about heartbreak anthems. But this song’s relationship had reached such a state of acrimony that it required two legends to translate the busted romance into a hit.

Baby, you come knocking on my front door,
Same old line you used to use before.
I said, “Hey, well, what am I supposed to do?”
I didn’t know what I was getting into.

“I Should Have Known It”

I chose this as a bookend to “Breakdown”. If the relaxed groove in Petty’s first single betrayed how much love hurts, then Petty’s dazed-and-confused banger does the opposite. But Petty’s neither dazed nor confused here. Instead, he rants over Campbell’s Led Zeppelin guitar riff, with the kind of heavy blues in his voice befitting how one feels when they are fed up with being someone’s punching bag.

I should’ve known it, I should’ve seen,
Leave it to you to treat me mean.
Every promise was just a runaround,
I should’ve known it, yeah, you’re gonna let me down.

Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images