TomPetty

Not many artists can match Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers' record of 23 years of commercial success along with a simultaneous period of creative growth and critical acclaim.

· Beyond the recent boxed set Playback, the band's previous recordings also continue to resonate with Greatest Hits, a quadruple-platinum album which hasn't left the Billboard charts once since its release in late 1993. One of the two newly recorded tracks for the album was the hit song and video "Mary Jane's Last Dance," which won Best Male Video at the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards. At the ceremony, Petty was also presented with the Video Vanguard Award, citing his longtime contributions to the field.

· As a songwriter, Tom Petty was acknowledged in May 1996 with the prestigious Golden Note Award from ASCAP. Writing in the New York Times in 1995, Jon Pareles noted about Petty's songs: "They are tales of characters whose hopes are shrinking and who don't know what went wrong. Although he has been a rock hit-maker since the 1970s, Mr. Petty hasn't lost touch with the small-time life; his characters are sullen and bewildered, stubborn as well as restless. He gives them anthems like 'I Won't Back Down'; he also captures their doggedness in the face of set-backs. 'I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings/Coming down is the hardest thing.' And he knows that his narrators are not always nice guys; they can be selfish and oblivious, proclaiming, 'You don't know how it feels to be me.'"