I bought the single when it came out in 1981 and then the album “Hard Promises”. This song has a Byrd feel to it and is reminiscent of the mid-sixties. It peaked at #19 in the Billboard 100 and #6 in the Canadian Charts.
In the 1980s I watched the Gary Shandling Show faithfully and I remember that Tom Petty played this song on there in the late eighties.
“The Waiting”
Oh baby don’t it feel like heaven right now
Don’t it feel like something from a dream
Yeah I’ve never known nothing quite like this
Don’t it feel like tonight might never be again
We know better than to try and pretend
Baby no one could’a ever told me ’bout this
I said yeah yeah[Chorus:]
The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more card
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest partWell yeah i might have chased a couple women around
All it ever got me was down
Then there were those that made me feel good
But never as good as I’m feeling right now
Baby you’re the only one that’s ever known how
To make me wanna live like I wanna live now
I said yeah yeah[Chorus:]
The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you get one more yard
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest partOh don’t let it kill you baby, don’t let it get to you
Don’t let it kill you baby, don’t let it get to you
I’ll be your bleedin’ heart, I’ll be your cryin’ fool
Don’t let this go too far
Don’t let it get to you
Don’t it feel like something from a dream
Yeah I’ve never known nothing quite like this
Don’t it feel like tonight might never be again
We know better than to try and pretend
Baby no one could’a ever told me ’bout this
I said yeah yeah[Chorus:]
The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more card
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest partWell yeah i might have chased a couple women around
All it ever got me was down
Then there were those that made me feel good
But never as good as I’m feeling right now
Baby you’re the only one that’s ever known how
To make me wanna live like I wanna live now
I said yeah yeah[Chorus:]
The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you get one more yard
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest partOh don’t let it kill you baby, don’t let it get to you
Don’t let it kill you baby, don’t let it get to you
I’ll be your bleedin’ heart, I’ll be your cryin’ fool
Don’t let this go too far
Don’t let it get to you
PowerPop... An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture 
You can’t go wrong with TP- basic rock and roll nothing fancy right to the point!
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He played power pop and rock great… have you read the bio on him by Warren Zanes?
Petty had integrity to spare.
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Seems like a great guy- and a terrible loss…yes I have read that book and a book I think called Conversations With Tom Petty. Here is a guy who really did rise up from a childhood of poverty to rock stardom..
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Yes he did… I love the story of Hard Promises… I was amazed on how many rock musicians came from Florida during that era.
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Tom always seemed like a pretty regular guy.
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This song was like a drink of cool water when it came on the radio. I’d just gone away to college in a little town that was still clinging to disco. This song somehow made it through to the playlists, thank goodness. It did have an old-school sound to it, which I loved. It almost sounded like a classic from the start.
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I’m glad it busted the disco cycle for you! It’s a song that would have worked in any decade.
The Waiting and American Girl are my favorite Petty songs… Him and Roger McGuinn have a similar style…I could listen to them both all day.
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This song has any interesting backstory as well…Petty was seriously injured in an auto accident–if I remember right–his hand was screwed up really bad to the extent that he didn’t know if he would be able to play the guitar again. Well, he recovered and the riff and lyrics came to him as a celebration of that.
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I didn’t know that… thanks
The one thing about that album (Hard Promises) I read about was..the record company wanted to price it at 9.98… a dollar over what normal albums cost then…Tom was upset and was going to name the album Eight Ninety-Eight… The record company gave in.
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Yeah, that’s right. I forgot about that. I can’t believe he died of a drug overdose. Hate it. Him, Prince, John Entwistle even Bobby Hatfield of the Righteous Brothers and all of these guys were way old enough to know better. Sad…
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It is sad. Entwistle had a bad heart and he was doing cocaine…The Who regrouped a couple of times to bail him out of trouble. He could never get out of that Rock Star spending habit.
Petty and Prince shocked me the most…
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Great song. Always makes me think of ‘The Simpsons’, it plays in an episode where Homer wants to buy a gun but has to wait for something like 48 hours before getting it. Petty also, should anyone have forgotten, played the voice of “Lucky” on ‘King of the Hill’ (which to my mind is one of the most under-rated animated shows)
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I remember that Simpsons episode… Love that show since it was on the Tracy Ullman show in the 80s…. I also liked King of the Hill…I had forgotten he voiced that character.
The one I couldn’t get into as much was South Park.
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