![]() Sounds of The Super Bowl
With Super Bowl XLIII afoot, go inside Springsteen's Super Bowl 'Dream,' discover spectacular halftimes past, get the latest Super Bowl music news and more.
10 Best Halftime Music Moments
Exceptional halftime spectacles of Super Bowl's past from Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction to U2's 9/11 tribute and beyond.
9
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Super Bowl XLII, 2008
On the heels of Prince's electrifying 2007 performance, Petty's 12-minute set, while more staid, was seen by a record 97 million viewers and was so chock-full of familiar hits that he and his band's "Greatest Hits" album notched a 196% sales spike in the week following the game. The Heartbreakers, who played their five songs on a stage shaped like a Gibson Flying V guitar, saw an even more impressive response to the penultimate tune they performed; digital sales of "Free Fallin'" shot up 305% and landed the song at No. 10 on Billboard's Hot Digital Songs chart last February.
Perhaps inspiring singalongs in rock-fan living rooms across America, Petty also ran through "American Girl," "I Won't Back Down" and "Runnin' Down a Dream."
Text by Katie Hasty and Jessica Letkemann.
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