• Track: Even the Losers
• Artist: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
• Album: Damn the Torpedoes
• Year: 1979

Lyrics:

Well, it was nearly all summer we sat on your roof
Yeah, we smoked cigarettes and we stared at the moon
And I’d show you stars you never could see
Baby, it couldn’t have been that easy to forget about me

Yeah, we smoked cigarettes and we stared at the moon
And I’d show you stars you never could see

Baby, time meant nothing, anything seemed real
Yeah, you could kiss like fire and you made me feel
Like every word you said was meant to be
No, it couldn’t have been that easy to forget about me

Baby, even the losers get lucky sometimes
Even the losers keep a little bit of pride
They get lucky sometimes

Two cars parked on the overpass
Rocks hit the water like broken glass
I should have known right then it was too good to last
God, it’s such a drag when you’re livin’ in the past

Baby, even the losers get lucky sometimes
Even the losers keep a little bit of pride
They get lucky sometimes

Baby, even the losers get lucky sometimes
Even the losers keep a little bit of pride
Yeah, they get lucky sometimes

Baby, even the losers get lucky sometimes
Even the losers get lucky sometimes, oh, oh, oh

Even the losers get lucky sometimes

The deluxe version of Damn the Torpedoes is a steal at Amazon. This version has been remastered and includes additional tracks not found on the original release:

I know we’ve already visited Mr. Petty on this blog—and even featured another track from this album. However, I heard Even the Losers in my car on the way home from Indianapolis last night and it’s been the background to my inner monologue since. This is a song that spoke to be back in 1979. As hard as it might be for you to believe now, given my rakish good looks and easy charm, but at one time, I was a nerd—a social misfit, if you will. I never really fit in anywhere. I was too smart for the hoods, too goofy for the popular crowd, and too maladroit for the jocks. So, I hovered around the edges being largely unnoticed, I think, until late in my high school career when I tired of the bullies and used my size to chop a few them down to their size, as they say. If my teen years had an anthem, this was it.

Surprisingly, Even the Losers was never officially released as a single, but album-oriented rock stations started playing it and it became a hit without ever charting as a single. Interesting.

Tom Petty hails from Gainesville, Florida, which means he could be Florida crazy, but I am going to assume that he got out of there before the whole state went to hell in a handcart, as my gramma used to say.

Damn the Torpedoes hit number 2 on the Billboard charts and made Rolling Stone’s Top 500 list for best albums of all time.

Video:

Unfortunately, Petty didn’t make an official video for Even the Losers, so I had to settle for an audio file followed by a live performance:

No official video was made for Even the Losers, so the best I can do is provide a live performance from Farm Aid in 1986: