Just a few days after the GTA 6 trailer aired, Tom Petty's estate told Billboard that streams of the late music legend's 1989 hit, 'Love Is a Long Road', had jumped over 8,000%. If the power of a banging song being chosen to score a Grand Theft Auto game reveal didn't already speak for itself, then those incredible numbers surely did.
Since the GTA 6 trailer's shock reveal last week – following an internet leak that pushed Rockstar to jump the gun by 15 hours – our first look at Vice City has been viewed over 140 million times on the developer's official YouTube channel. Petty's iconic droll plays no small part in the final package, which is clearly reflected in the theme song's uptick in interest. But where does Petty's Love Is a Long Road rank in the grand pantheon of GTA reveal trailer backing tracks? That's a good question.
Read on for the answer. Here are the indisputable, categorical, and totally unbiased top five GTA trailer theme songs of all time, ever.
5. Grand Theft Auto 3
HAPPY GRAND THEFT ADVENT!
Welcome to Grand Theft Advent – a month-long celebration of Rockstar's enduring crime sim series. Be sure to check in on our GTA 6 coverage hub for more every day throughout December.
Song: Giacomo Puccini – O Mio Babbino Caro
Okay, so please forgive me if this wasn't actually GTA 3's reveal trailer, but I think it was. Clearly it was part of the game's promotional campaign, but given it predates YouTube and isn't specified on wikis and archived forum threads (not to mention the fact that my memory as a 37-year-old who first played GTA 3 aged 15 might be playing on tricks on me), I think we're good.
Against the dulcet, operatic tones of Giacomo Puccini's O Mio Babbino Caro, this GTA trailer announced a new dawn with flair and finesse, showcasing 3D Liberty City and the unscrupulous folk who power its seedy underbelly. With gangsters, guns, and gaul, this really was a GTA trailer for the ages – one which, despite looking pretty dated now, echoed the cinematic previews of Goodfellas, Casino and Scarface.
(Video credit: GTA Series Videos)
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4. Grand Theft Auto 4
Song: Philip Glass – Pruit Igoe
A moodier trailer for a moodier game, this orchestral number by composer Philip Glass perfectly encapsulated Grand Theft Auto's evolution from its 3D to its HD Universe. Gone were San Andreas and Vice City's cartoon-like aesthetics, this time replaced by the faux-NYC cityscape of Liberty City and its beleaguered protagonist Nico Bellic. "Things will be different," says the GTA 4 antihero, and Glass' Pruit Igoe against the city's timelapse footage helped prove it.
3. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Song: Chakachas – Jungle Fever
Those first drum and symbol combinations as the camera pulled back from CJ's house to reveal that now iconic Grove Street cul-de-sac will never be forgotten. With gun-wielding, gang members on the ground, and searchlight-shooting choppers in the skies, Chakachas' Jungle Fever was the perfect anthem to underscore this living and breathing city – one not just brimming with crime, but with leisurely activities too. San Andreas set new standards for open-world sandbox games in 2004, and Jungle Fever helped dial up everything that first trailer teased to 11.
(Video credit: GTA Series Videos)
2. Grand Theft Auto 6
Song: Tom Petty – Love Is a Long Road
Having Tom Petty's Love Is a Long Road underpin the latest Grand Theft Auto reveal trailer was fitting for a number of reasons. GamesRadar+'s own Ali Jones digs into the speculative aspects of the song choice here – from how Rockstar might view itself in the games industry today, to how the song's lyrics reflect the GTA series in 2023 and beyond – but on a more superficial level, Petty himself was born in Florida (reflective of Vice City's faux interpretation of Miami), and it has indeed been a long road for GTA 6 so far. Moreover, a good head-nodding rock anthem was always likely to help showcase Vice City's raucous side – and that's exactly what Petty's 1989 number did.
1. Grand Theft Auto 5
Song: Small Faces – Ogden's Nut Gone Flake
"Why did I move here? I guess it was the weather," says Michael De Santa at the beginning of the GTA 5 reveal trailer. Small Faces' Ogden's Nut Gone Flake then incrementally builds around the mundane life in Los Santos – Grand Theft Auto's answer to LA – De Santa wishes he was living, before breaking into drums and strings as we're shown how one of the game's three protagonists really lives. Burning cars, police chases, bank heists, armed robberies, helicopters and planes tearing through the skies above; the GTA 5 reveal trailer showed so much in such a short space of time, combining the perfect song with the perfect reveal trailer.
These games like GTA can tide you over till the next one in 2025
Joe Donnelly
Contributor
Joe Donnelly is a sports editor from Glasgow and former features editor at GamesRadar+. A mental health advocate, Joe has written about video games and mental health for The Guardian, New Statesman, VICE, PC Gamer and many more, and believes the interactive nature of video games makes them uniquely placed to educate and inform. His book Checkpoint considers the complex intersections of video games and mental health, and was shortlisted for Scotland's National Book of the Year for non-fiction in 2021. As familiar with the streets of Los Santos as he is the west of Scotland, Joe can often be found living his best and worst lives in GTA Online and its PC role-playing scene.
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