These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40.

Tom Petty made his way into the Billboard Top 40 sixteen times, with and without the Heartbreakers (including twice with Stevie Nicks, but never as a Wilbury). His very first visit to the charts was with his group’s debut single, albeit not right away. “Breakdown” was issued in 1976, and completely stalled out on the charts, as did the band’s self-titled debut album. Initially rejected on their home turf, Petty and his crew had greater success in the U.K., leading them to concentrate their promotional efforts there for a time. It was only when the single was rereleased around a year later, after the band had faced similarly dismal commercial responses to “Anything That’s Rock ‘n’ Roll” and, amazingly, “American Girl,” that “Breakdown” edged its way up the charts, peaking at #40. According to Petty, it was only the intervention of Dwight Twilley that even made that possible. The original version of the track was around seven minutes long until Twilley heard Petty playing it in the studio and immediately told his labelmate that the guitar solo buried at the end was the hook he should build the entire song around. Petty called the band back into the studio, at the relatively inhuman hour of 4:00 a.m., and they took another pass at it, emerging with the tight two-and-a-half minutes that wound up on the record. Petty fell in and out of favor with pop radio programmers across the next twenty years or so, sometimes based on whether or not he landed in an eye-catching music video. Though he keeps delivering new music, it’s now been over twenty years since his last Top 40 hit.

—“Just Like Heaven” by The Cure.
—“I’m in Love” by Evelyn King
—“Buy Me a Rose” by Kenny Rogers
—“Who’s Your Baby” by The Archies
—“Me and Bobby McGee” by Jerry Lee Lewis
—“Angel in Blue” by J. Geils Band
—“Crazy Downtown” by Allan Sherman
—“I’ve Seen All Good People” and “Rhythm of Love” by Yes
—“Naturally Stoned” by the Avant-Garde
—“Come See” by Major Lance
—“Your Old Standby” by Mary Wells
—“See the Lights” by Simple Minds
—“Watch Out For Lucy” by Eric Clapton
—“The Alvin Twist” by Alvin and the Chipmunks
—“Love Me Tender” by Percy Sledge
—“Jennifer Eccles” by the Hollies
—“Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Olympics
—“The Bounce” by the Olympics
—“Your One and Only Love” by Jackie Wilson
—“Tell Her She’s Lovely” by El Chicano
—“The Last Time I Made Love” by Joyce Kennedy and Jeffrey Osborne
—“Limbo Rock” by The Champs
—“Crazy Eyes For You” by Bobby Hamilton
—“Who Do You Think You’re Foolin'” by Donna Summer
—“Violet Hill” and “Lost+” by Coldplay
—“Freight Train” by the Chas. McDevitt Skiffle Group
—“Sweet William” by Little Millie Small
—“Live My Life” by Boy George
—“Lessons Learned” by Tracy Lawrence
—“So Close” by Diana Ross
—“Six Feet Deep” by the Geto Boys
—“You Thrill Me” by Exile
—“What Now” by Gene Chandler
—“Put It in a Magazine” by Sonny Charles
—“Got a Love for You” by Jomanda
—“Stone Cold” by Rainbow
—“People in Love” by 10cc
—“Just Seven Numbers (Can Straighten Out My Life)” by the Four Tops
—“Thinkin’ Problem” by David Ball
—“You Got Yours and I’ll Get Mine” and “Trying to Make a Fool of Me” by the Delfonics
—“The Riddle (You and I)” by Five for Fighting
—“I Can’t Wait” by Sleepy Brown
—“Nature Boy” by Bobby Darin
—“Give It to Me Baby” and “Cold Blooded” by Rick James
—“Who’s Sorry Now?” by Marie Osmond
—“A Love So Fine” by the Chiffons
—“Funky Y-2-C” by the Puppies
—“Brand New Girlfriend” by Steve Holy
—“I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)” by Bonnie Pointer
—“Mr. Loverman” by Shabba Ranks
—“I’ve Never Found a Girl” by Eddie Floyd
—“Plastic Man” and “Happy People” by the Temptations
—“Okay” by Nivea
—“Go On” by George Strait
—“Back When My Hair Was Short” by Gunhill Road
—“Birthday Party” by the Pixies Three
—“Livin’ in the Life” by the Isley Brothers
—“Kissing You” by Keith Washington
—“The End of Our Road” by Marvin Gaye
—“Ticks” and “Letter to Me” by Brad Paisley
—“Nobody But You Babe” by Clarence Reid
—“Like a Sunday in Salem” by Gene Cotton
—“I’m Going to Let My Heart Do the Walking” by the Supremes
—“Call Me Lightning” by the Who
—“Ain’t It True” by Andy Williams
—“Lazy Elsie Molly” and “Let’s Do the Freddie” by Chubby Checker
—“Second Fiddle” by Kay Starr
—“1999” by Prince
—“I’ll Try Anything” by Dusty Springfield
—“Oh Happy Day” by Glen Campbell
—“I’d Love to Change the World” by Ten Years After
—“Friends” and “Married Men” by Bette Midler
—“Spice of Life” by the Manhattan Transfer
—“You Can’t Roller Skate in a Buffalo Herd” by Roger Miller
—“Don’t Pity Me” by Dion and the Belmonts
—“Ask Me No Questions” by B.B. King
—“Can’t Leave ‘Em Alone” by Ciara
—“All I Really Want to Do” by the Byrds
—“Love Rollercoaster” by Red Hot Chili Peppers
—“Just a Little” by Brenda Lee
—“Sweet Maxine” by the Doobie Brothers
—“Where You Lead” and “The Way He Makes Me Feel” by Barbra Streisand
—“Charity Ball” by Fanny
—“I’m Comin’ Home” by Tommy James
—“I’m Goin’ In” by Drake
—“Your Time to Cry” by Joe Simon
—“We’re Free” by Beverly Bremers
—“The Resurrection Shuffle” by Ashton, Gardner and Dyke
—“It Should Have Been Me” by Gladys Knight
—“Still Crazy After All These Years” and “One-Trick Pony” by Paul Simon
—“I (Who Have Nothing)” by Sylvester