Today is Tom Petty’s 68th birthday. American Girl is the last cut on his 1976 debut album and a rock and roll classic by every conceivable standard. It’s hard to even imagine rock and roll music existing before this song. It’s in the canon. This is also the last song I heard him play live, from the floor at American Airlines Center in Dallas, with my youngest daughter Carley, four years ago. It’s impossible to choose my all-time favorite Tom Petty song. But I don’t like any better than this one.

Peace,

Allan