(Credits: Far Out / The Bigger Picture)
Tue 30 December 2025 19:00, UK
While there are plenty of people who one might consider to be among the ‘great American songwriters’, there aren’t many who stake their claim to be part of this illustrious grouping as much as Tom Petty.
Many of his songs are largely related to the American experience, and much like the tradition that Bruce Springsteen had started slightly before his time, he was adding to the nation’s fine songbook through championing a style that would become affectionately known as ‘heartland rock’.
There isn’t much more that one can do in order to cement their American identity through the medium of songwriting, and as a result, you’d think that the nation would celebrate a songwriter of this vein, even if some of the songs weren’t exactly painting the nation in the best light, and were instead highlighting its ills through songs of protest.
However, while his albums have always sold relatively well in his home country, his success in the singles chart was always a little more stunted, and never seemed to take off in the way one might expect for an artist of his high calibre.
Over the course of his incredible 40-year career, both as a solo artist and alongside his band, The Heartbreakers, Petty only managed to creep into the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 once, and the number of certifications he has received as a result has been disappointingly lacklustre considering how popular he has remained since his passing in 2017.
But, in spite of having undersold in terms of singles, what was the best-selling single of Petty’s career, and was it a solo venture or a full band outing that managed to capture the hearts of the nation and beyond to a greater extent?
What is the best-selling single of Tom Petty’s career?
Coming from his debut solo release, 1989’s Full Moon Fever, the best-selling song of Petty’s career is ‘Free Fallin”, which, despite being universally recognised, only charted as high as number seven in the US, and failed to get any certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America.
However, it did manage to gain platinum status in the UK through selling over 600,000 copies, even though it only charted at number 59, and was certified gold in Denmark with a total of 45,000 sales, and in addition to this, Full Moon Fever has been certified five times platinum for achieving a total of five million record sales since its release, a position it managed to get to in 2000, just 11 years after it first hit shelves.
Even though it was not quite a major success for Petty, it would end up managing to receive two times platinum status from the RIAA in the form of a cover when John Mayer released his interpretation of the song in 2008. Petty may not have found the success that he deserved with the song, but the fact that people still recognise it and it’s managed to achieve success through another artist’s recording of it only goes to show just how timeless it is.
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