# Tom Petty ranked it among his 10 best songs. He thought radio overlooked it for no good reason

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/tom-petty-ranked-it-among-his-10-best-songs-he-thought-radio-overlooked-it-for-no-good-reason/
- Published: 2026-11-04T14:54:14+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-05T09:09:25+00:00
- Original publisher: Far Out
- Original article: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/1996-song-tom-petty-thought-was-massively-underrated/
- Topics: Entertainment, Music

## Key points

- Petty ranked ‘Angel Dream’ among his ten best songs.
- He blamed its lack of a guitar solo for radio overlooking it.
- A 2021 reworked album gave the song a new opening role.

## Summary

Tom Petty considered ‘Angel Dream’ one of his ten best songs, but felt radio overlooked it because it lacked a guitar solo. The song’s quiet, personal style stood apart from the more familiar sound expected by FM stations, and its later release as the opening track of a reworked album gave it renewed prominence.

Petty wrote ‘Angel Dream’ while working on the 1996 film soundtrack *She’s the One*, alongside ‘Walls’ and ‘Grew Up Fast’, in roughly 48 hours. He said the song reflected meeting his second wife, Dana, during a period of emotional turmoil. In 2021, engineer Ryan Ulyate remixed and reordered the soundtrack as *Angel Dream*, with the song placed first.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.