All 16 of Tom Petty’s Album Closing Songs Ranked

Tom Petty knew that making it in rock 'n' roll meant honing the craft of songwriting – all of the bells and whistles are useless if there's nothing solid underneath.

"You know, you can have the best band in the world, but if you don't have material that's good, it won't matter," he told Rolling Stone in 2013. "So really with us we're all focused on delivering a song first, you know, and I've always put a lot of care into writing. And when young musicians ask me what the most important thing is, I always say it's the song. You know, you can chrome a turd, but it's not going to do any good. You've got to have a song."

But once you have those songs, the job isn't over. Then comes the process of sequencing them for a full album, and, of course, one of them has to go last. Ideally, the final song should make a listener want to spin the album from the top again.

In the below list, we've ranked all 16 of Petty's album closing songs, including both Heartbreakers and solo releases.

16. "Airport"
From: Songs and Music From the Motion Picture "She's the One" (1996)

As its title notes, Songs and Music From the Motion Picture "She's the One" serves as a film soundtrack, so naturally its sequencing works a bit differently than a traditional album, which is why we've put "Airport" at the bottom of this list. It's a fun little piano bit, courtesy of Benmont Tench, but not exactly groundbreaking.

15. "Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)"
From: Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) (1987)

It's the title track that concludes 1987's Let Me Up (I've Had Enough), a co-write between Petty and guitarist Mike Campbell. It's a messy rocker of a tune with a great vocal — a bit Stones-esque in both Petty's singing and Campbell's guitar playing — but not Petty's finest closer.

14. "Shadow People"
From: Hypnotic Eye (2014)

"Shadow People" isn't the only song on Hypnotic Eye that alludes to what Petty felt at the time was the alarmingly combative direction America seemed to be heading in back in 2014, but it's not to be missed at the end of the album. "It's about what's missing — why is the 'human' missing from humanity?" he told Billboard then. "I think the level of caring about other people is disappearing."

13. "Good Enough"
From: Mojo (2010)

"Good Enough" is both the closing song from Mojo and the first single released from the album. In that way, it set the tone for Mojo and showed fans what kind of blues-y world they would be walking into. Plus, it makes for a nice slow burn at the end.

12. "Baby's a Rock 'n' Roller"
From: You're Gonna Get It! (1978)

By 1978, Petty and the Heartbreakers were gathering momentum, both commercially and as songwriters. You're Gonna Get It! ends with "Baby's a Rock 'n' Roller," which Petty himself once described as a "cheap throwaway" that only grew on him over time.

11. "Zombie Zoo"
From: Full Moon Fever (1989)

Yes, Full Moon Fever is a solo Petty album, but Campbell and Tench played on it anyway, so it has a collaborative feel. Roy Orbison actually sings backing vocals on "Zombie Zoo," the album's closer, though Petty ultimately seemed to regret including it.

"I do not understand how that got on the record when I had better stuff that didn't get on the record," he told Rolling Stone in 2017. "What frame of mind produced that, I don't understand. 'Cause normally, I would have thrown that away. God knows we've thrown away far better. That was nearly a perfect album until the very end [Laughs]."

Oh well, we like it.

10. "One More Day, One More Night"
From: Echo (1999)

"One More Day, One More Night" is some classic Petty songwriting, with a simple-yet-effective chord sequence and bittersweet lyrics — "no one ever taught me to be on my own." It was originally meant to be a skiffle song before Petty chose to take a much slower approach, which works well for the end of 1999's Echo.

9. "The Golden Rose"
From: Highway Companion (2006)

Highway Companion, released in 2006, was Petty's third and last solo album. After a journey through some harder rockers and more upbeat numbers, "The Golden Rose" feels a bit like drifting off to a blissful sleep...

8. "Louisiana Rain"
From: Damn the Torpedoes (1979)

There are a few...eclectic sounds at the top of "Louisiana Rain," but don't let that put you off from Damn the Torpedoes' closing song. It gives way to a loping, confident ballad that Petty wrote when he was still in Mudcrutch.

READ MORE: Tom Petty Album Opening Songs Ranked

7. "A Wasted Life"
From: Long After Dark (1982)

Petty had a knack for putting a song at the end of his albums that hits particularly hard emotionally. "I know you have to feel a little used up," he sings in "A Wasted Life" from 1982's Long After Dark. "And no one can give you enough / Baby hold on tight / Don't have a wasted life."

"'A Wasted Life' was a nice closer," Campbell told Goldmine in 2024. "Tom wrote that on his own; it was a downbeat type of love song. Those are the songs that stick out in my mind."

6. "Can't Stop the Sun"
From: The Last DJ (2002)

"Can't Stop the Sun," the Beatles-y closer from 2002's The Last DJ is unique in that it was primarily written by Campbell, who even wrote lyrics for it before handing things off to his frontman. Petty wound up rewriting most of them, but keeping the central lick of the song. "I thought it was a good way to end the album," he later said for 2005's Conversations With Tom Petty. "It was a good 'up' song."

5. "Built to Last"
From: Into the Great Wide Open (1991)

Petty wrote "Built to Last" with Jeff Lynne, who also helped produce 1991's Into the Great Wide Open, featuring a sort of Motown groove. According to Petty, it was not only the album's closer, it was also the very last song made for the album. (Those things are not always the same.) "That was the end of it," he later recalled. "Because I remember, when we got it done, there was this sigh of relief."

4. "Wake Up Time"
From: Wildflowers (1994)

Here's another example, we feel, of Petty ending an album with an emotional gut punch. "Wake Up Time," with its orchestral section, is lush and warm-sounding, a tender ending to a tender album. Petty plays piano himself here, while Campbell plays bass.

But don't take our word for it, take Petty's: "That song is just one of my best songs."

3. "You Can Still Change Your Mind"
From: Hard Promises (1981)

"You Can Still Change Your Mind" speaks for itself. But just to further prove how beautiful of a closing song it is, we will note that for a while in the months after Petty's passing in October of 2017, Tench would sometimes close his own shows with a stunning solo piano version of it, bringing many in the audience, this writer included, to tears.

2. "The Best of Everything
From: Southern Accents (1985)

A thank you is owed here to Robbie Robertson, who not only helped Petty revamp "The Best of Everything," a song Petty had had sitting around for several years, but who also encouraged it to be used as the poignant closing song to Southern Accents. "It's over before you know it," Petty laments. "It all goes by so fast / the bad nights last forever / and the good nights don't ever seem to last."

1. "American Girl"
From: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (1976)

Really, does it get any better than "American Girl" for an album-closing song? We don't think so. The call-and-response chorus, that iconic riff at the end, the fade-out...there's a reason this song was used as the Heartbreakers' set-closer for years.