User:FrostFairBlade/sandbox/Free Fallin'

"Free Fallin'" is a song by American singer-songwriter Tom Petty. It is the opening track from his debut solo album, Full Moon Fever.

Background and production
In 1987, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released their seventh album, Let Me Up (I've Had Enough), to mixed critical reception and lower sales numbers. Amidst growing tensions with the rest of the Heartbreakers, Petty was set to go on a tour in Europe with them and Bob Dylan. However, a few days before the tour's start, an unknown arsonist set fire to his house in Encino, Los Angeles and caused over $1 million in damages. Frustrated with his personal situation, Petty began spending time with new people. One of these people was Jeff Lynne, whom he befriended during his tour with Dylan in the autumn of 1987. After the tour concluded, he ran into Lynne again in Los Angeles during Thanksgiving. Impressed with Lynne's production on George Harrison's Cloud Nine album, Petty asked if he would be interested in collaborating with him. Arriving over the Christmas holidays, Lynne first helped Petty complete a song that would become "Yer So Bad"; the next day, the two composed "Free Fallin'".

According to Petty, the song stemmed from a riff that he played on a keyboard that Lynne suggested to simplify. Wanting to make his friend laugh, Petty started to sing the first verse to him, improvising the lyrics. When he got to the chorus, Lynne interjected with the phrase, "free-falling". After taking his friend's recommendation that he should sing the chorus one octave higher, Petty sung "free, free-falling" because he couldn't fit the phrase into one line. After Lynne left for the night, Petty wrote the song's third verse.

Satisfied with how the song turned out, the pair recorded "Free Fallin'" over a couple of days at the small home studio of Mike Campbell, the Heartbreakers' guitarist. Petty also enlisted the help of Phil Jones, who had played drums for the band on previous albums and tour gigs. His decision to record a solo album with Lynne, with only a select few of his band members as session musicians, rankled the remaining Heartbreakers, who worried that Petty was going to break up the band. While bassist Howie Epstein was invited to play on "Free Fallin'", he told Petty he disliked the song, prompting the songwriter to reply, "Well, if you don't like the song, you don't have to play on it." However, Campbell and Jones were amazed by Lynne's production style: unlike the Heartbreakers' method of recording the band live, Lynne recorded the tracks for "Free Fallin'" piece-by-piece. Jones recalled that when he got to the studio, the basic structure of the song was recorded without any vocals, and that the producer would keep portions of the drum track that he would record. Lynne also instructed Petty to record his vocals in a conversational and relaxed way; this ended up being a stylistic choice that Petty would use on subsequent albums.

While Petty was happy with the song, he recalled that MCA Records executives rejected the entire Full Moon Fever album. According to Petty, the executives felt that none of the songs were good enough to be released as a single, including "Free Fallin'". Hurt by the rejection, he later spent an evening talking with Warner Records executive Mo Ostin, and the two agreed to have Petty sign at Warner and release Full Moon Fever after his contract at MCA ended. However, the singer managed to successfully release the album at MCA by waiting until new executives were in charge.
 * Tensions between Petty and the Heartbreakers caused the singer-songwriter to spend time away from the band
 * Petty had met Jeff Lynne while on tour with Bob Dylan in the autumn of 1987; they met backstage when the Heartbreakers played at Wembley Stadium
 * Lynne had worked on George Harrison's Cloud Nine album; he later bumped into Petty on the street in Los Angeles, where Petty had praised the album and asked if Lynne would be interested in working with him
 * Lynne was in Los Angeles handling the production of Brian Wilson's album
 * The first day Lynne came over, he helped Petty complete a song that would become "Yer So Bad"; the next day, the two composed "Free Fallin'"
 * According to Petty, he was playing what would be the main riff on a keyboard a member of his road crew bought him, and under Lynne's suggestion, removed a chord from the riff
 * Then, to make Lynne laugh, Petty started singing the first verse; when he got to the chorus, Jeff interjected with the prompt, "free-falling"
 * According to Petty, Lynne contributed the title of the song to him, as well as the suggestion to sing the chorus one octave higher
 * Petty then wrote the third verse after Lynne left for the day
 * Petty recalled that he and Lynne spent very little time writing the song, saying that despite the track's omnipresence throughout his career, "it was really only 30 minutes of my life."


 * "Free Fallin'" was recorded at the small home studio of Mike Campbell; according to Petty, the song only took a couple of days to record
 * With the assistance of Campbell, Petty and Lynne started recording "Free Fallin'" after first recording "Yer So Bad" on the first day
 * Petty recorded his vocals in a conversational and relaxed way, after Lynne encouraged him to sing like that on the record; this ended up being a stylistic choice that Petty would use on subsequent albums
 * Phil Jones, who had worked with Petty and the Heartbreakers previously, played the drums on the track
 * Jones recalled that when he came to the studio, the basic structure of the song was laid out without any vocals, and that the producers would keep portions of the drum track that he would record
 * Petty's decision to record Full Moon Fever as a solo album irked some members of the Heartbreakers
 * Petty, in an interview for Mojo: "They were really pissed. This is a bunch of people who've been running around together since we were kids—a lot of baggage. I think their biggest fear was that I was leaving, 'cos after that I joined The Traveling Wilburys. I wasn't, but I'd been on the road with them for two years straight and needed a break. I was toast."
 * Unlike the Heartbreakers' approach to recording music live in the studio, Lynne favored building songs piece-by-piece
 * Keyboardist Benmont Tench felt "pissed off and hurt", explaining that he was worried Petty would break up the band due to the rising turmoil within the group
 * Regular Heartbreakers drummer Stan Lynch was especially hurt by the album, as Petty had used a different drummer
 * Petty recalled bassist Howie Epstein telling him that he disliking the song, to which the singer-songwriter replied, "Well, if you don't like the song, you don't have to play on it."


 * Petty recalled that MCA record executives disliked all of the songs on Full Moon Fever, and rejected the album outright
 * Petty felt crushed by the rejection⁠; when he mentioned this at a visit to Warner Records executive Mo Ostin, the two agreed to have Petty sign at Warner and release Full Moon Fever after his current contract at MCA ended
 * However, Petty managed to successfully release the record on MCA by waiting until new executives were in charge of the label, before demoing the album again for their approval
 * Petty described Full Moon Fever as "a very Los Angeles record", noting that "one of the great things about L.A. is that you can be all alone in your car—alone and moving fast. It's very therapeutic."

Lyrics and music
In a 2016 interview with Billboard, Petty stated that the song was inspired by his daily drive from Beverly Hills to the studio in San Fernando Valley, and the various kinds of people he would see along Ventura Boulevard. Written during a time of upheaval for Petty due to losing his home to arson, "Free Fallin'" was also inspired by his travels along Mulholland Drive to get to his temporary place of residence. Multiple contemporary journalists identified the song's ability to be satisfying background music for driving. Petty himself noted that Full Moon Fever was "a very Los Angeles record", stating that "one of the great things about L.A. is that you can be all alone in your car—alone and moving fast. It's very therapeutic."

Lyrically, "Free Fallin'" follows a male narrator who recounts breaking up with his kindhearted American girlfriend. The Ringer 's Alyssa Bereznak described each verse as a character study of different people, starting with the girlfriend who loves Elvis and Jesus. In a separate article for the same website, Jason Concepcion wrote that "Free Fallin'" is a "deceptively complex" song that provides "a series of interconnected vignettes which reframe the chorus in unexpected ways." As an example, he writes that the second verse, which highlights "vampires walkin' in the valley", helps turn the chorus from "freedom from being tied down by a girl and her various hobbies" into "a wild emotional spiral into regret". Throughout the song, Petty references multiple places in the San Fernando Valley, such as Reseda, Ventura Boulevard, and Mulholland Drive.
 * In a 2016 interview with Billboard, Petty stated that the song was inspired by his daily drive from Beverly Hills to the studio in San Fernando Valley, and the characters he would see along Ventura Boulevard
 * Petty: "I just used to look at Ventura Boulevard, and just life’s great pageant was going in up and down that street. And I tried to grab a little bit of these characters on the road and it was kind of how I saw it. It’s pretty true of that time and that era, I remember…maybe it’s still that way, I don’t know. The skateboarders and the shoppers and the young kids in the trendiest possible clothes and the auto-tellers and the drive-thru banks. It’s a scene, it’s a never-ending scene."
 * Petty describes a kindhearted American girl who gets her heart broken by her boyfriend
 * Alyssa Bereznak of The Ringer noted how each verse performs its own character study
 * Bereznak: "This is the perfect soundtrack for speeding down a highway with nowhere in particular to go [...] It's a song for being sick of your perfectly OK, suburban life."
 * Biographer Andrea M. Rotondo states that after leaving his girlfriend, the boyfriend is "happily surprised by his newfound sense of freedom"
 * In a separate article from The Ringer, Jason Concepcion notes that Petty is able to create a timeless feeling from his song through "pairing lyrical tropes with familiar musical ideas", then changing their perspectives
 * Jim Beviglia of American Songwriter notes that the title is a "double-edged sword", where despite the title evoking a sense of freedom, the song's narrator realizes that he "has reached a point in his life where there's nowhere to go but down."


 * The song opens with two acoustic guitars panned left and right in the audio mix; the effect, when paired with a soft synthesizer pad, creates a feeling of disembodiment

Release and commercial performance
"Free Fallin'" was released as a single on October 27, 1989. It was the third single from Full Moon Fever to be released, after "I Won't Back Down" and "Runnin' Down a Dream". The song debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 on November 4, 1989, peaking at number 7 on January 27, 1990 and charting for 21 weeks. In the United Kingdom, the song stayed on the charts for 10 weeks, peaking at number 59.
 * "Free Fallin'" was released as a single on October 27, 1989
 * It debuted on the charts on November 4, 1989, and peaked at number 7 on January 27, 1990
 * Made an appearance on Tom Petty's Greatest Hits compilation album

Critical reception

 * Michael MacCambridge, Austin American-Statesman: "Free Fallin'" is "maybe Petty's best song in a decade"; "opens as a spare, aching ballad, with Petty pouring his Southern-fried drawl into the first lines"
 * MacCambridge: "'' is a perfectly crafted piece of popular art, flying with an aura that's smoother and more memorable than anything he's done since 'The Waiting'."
 * In a later article, MacCambridge stated that songs like "Free Fallin'" "consolidated great guitar sounds and miles of hooks"
 * Helen Metella, Edmonton Journal: "There's nothing fundamentally unappealing about songs like 'I Won't Back Down', 'Free Fallin '' or 'Yer So Bad', all with gummy choruses and honest acoustic guitar and tambourine. But there's nothing rivetting either."
 * Ted Shaw, Windsor Star: Full Moon Fever features "good rocking tunes" like 'Free Fallin'' "
 * David Silverman, Chicago Tribune: Describes "Free Fallin'" as "exuberant", and that like many of the songs on the album, it was "made to be played on a warm summer's eve, cruising in a convertible with the top down."
 * Chris Dafoe, The Globe and Mail: While Full Moon Fever "isn't Petty's strongest work", tracks like "Free Fallin'" "nicely showcase his economical lyrical style and easy melodicism."
 * Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic: "Free Fallin'" is "a coming-of-age ballad that could be Petty's best song."
 * Mike Daly, The Age: Called the song a "delicious opener"; appreciated its "layered Lynne vocal and laconic lyric containing a neat reference to heartbreaking."
 * Julius Robinson, Cash Box: Despite describing the album's sound as being "present and tight", he criticized "Free Fallin'" for being "painfully lightweight" and "too pulled back in both lyrical and musical aspirations."
 * Jimmy Guterman, Rolling Stone: Describes "Free Fallin'" as "delicate" and "the standout" track on the album
 * Billboard: Described it as a "languid and oh-so-satisfying slow number [that] is sure to sustain the attention of programmers at a Fever-ish pitch."
 * Chris Willman, Los Angeles Times: Calls the song an "ironic, bittersweet opening track", and "a most telling tale as Petty doth protest too much about how he doesn’t miss the sweet young thing he deserted back in Reseda."
 * Blender: With "Free Fallin'", Petty "writes his best American-girl song since 'American Girl.'"
 * Maura Johnston, Pitchfork: The "sun-soaked chords [...] tug the action along while Petty, half-sly and half-wistful, recounts the wounds suffered by a young woman who was focused on Elvis and horses before the allure of the bad boy creeps into her life."
 * Johnston notes the dichotomy between the chorus' uplifting "free" and the descending "free-fallin'"; explains that the latter "reveals the more alarming aspects of being unmoored, an uneasiness that persists even as the churning bridge rises up."
 * In a retrospective of the five best Petty songs, Michael Hann from The Guardian stated that it was "one of the great Los Angeles songs"; he also mentioned that you don't need to know American geography to appreciate the song's ability to become "the place where joy, nostalgia and melancholy meet, a combination that's incredibly easy to misjudge in song; Petty nailed every element."

Accolades

 * Earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance
 * Rolling Stone listed the song at number four of Petty's greatest songs
 * It also appeared on the list of Rolling Stone 's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, appearing at number 179 on the 2004 list, and at number 219 on the 2021 list
 * Billboard also rated it fourth, stating that Petty's discography had to have a song like "Free Fallin'" that "ensures that his music will be kept alive by the John Mayers of the world for as long as there are acoustic guitars (and open-hearted teenagers who only know how to play three chords on ’em)."
 * Ultimate Classic Rock named it as the best track on Full Moon Fever, stating, "That he could create such an unforgettable juxtaposition between the exuberance of 'I'm free!' and then the desolate 'free fallin',' [...] while working at such a furious pace is a testament to Petty's rock genius."
 * American Songwriter listed it as one of Petty's top 10 songs

Development and release

 * Directed by Julien Temple
 * Temple had previously worked on other music videos for artists like Neil Young, Judas Priest, the Rolling Stones, and David Bowie
 * To play the part of the girlfriend, teenager Devon Kidd was selected, in part for her skateboarding ability
 * Other extras include skateboarder Mark Rogowski and his then-girlfriend, Brandi McClain
 * Clothing for the skateboarders supplied by Vision Street Wear, an apparel company focused on skateboarding wear
 * Partially filmed at the Westside Pavilion shopping mall in West Los Angeles,  and the Casa de Cadillac dealership on Ventura Boulevard
 * The hot dog stand on Ventura Boulevard, Future Dogs, also made an appearance

Synopsis

 * Begins with a middle-class family dressed in 1950s fashion throwing a birthday party for a teenage daughter

Reception

 * Chris Willman, Los Angeles Times: Criticized the music video for being overly literal with the song's mention of Elvis Presley, taking issue with the music video's "excuse to place most of the video in '50s or -60s-era teen Valley suburbia"; also was frustrated at the director's decision to use the Westside Pavilion as a landmark for the San Fernando Valley, instead of the Sherman Oaks Galleria
 * In a retrospective of Petty's music videos, Gil Kaufman of Billboard writes that "there’s something in the way Petty takes you on a tour of his adopted hometown that feels like a peek into another world."
 * Allison Rapp of Ultimate Classic Rock listed it fourth in her ranking of all 47 music videos by Petty, stating that the video is "a tribute to Los Angeles, featuring luscious scenes of highways and skateboarding parks."
 * Brad Shoup of SPIN described the video as a "classic", highlighting how Petty "presides over a slo-mo Los Angeles of air-guzzling skaters, bored mallgoers, and heartbroken blonde girls."
 * Newsweek described the video as "an ode to teen memories" for those who grew up in southern California, and that the music video "seems to capture all the highs and lows of late adolescence."
 * A 1991 Rolling Stone article attributed MTV's airplay of the music videos for Full Moon Fever, such as the one for "Free Fallin'", for helping to popularize Petty with a younger audience

Live performances and other versions

 * Petty began playing "Free Fallin'" during his Strange Behavior tour, which began on July 5, 1989
 * He played the song when he appeared as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live on May 20, 1989
 * Petty opted to play it instead of the single he was supposed to promote, "I Won't Back Down", infuriating his record label
 * Performed the song during the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards with guest vocals by Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose
 * The duet was praised by the Austin American-Statesman as "better than one could have hoped for" from a surprise performance at the awards show, and a 1990 article from USA Today cited it as an example of unconventional performances on the MTV Music Awards that have the potential to turn into "instant classics and MTV staples"
 * Petty would later perform the song with the Heartbreakers as the headline act at Super Bowl XLII halftime show on February 28, 2008
 * In 1993, De La Soul and Teenage Fanclub sampled the song for "Fallin'", which appeared on the Judgment Night soundtrack
 * "Free Fallin'" was also sampled on:
 * Pimp C's song "I'm Free", from his second album Pimpalation (2006)
 * Chamillionaire's 2009 single "Good Morning", released on Venom (2009)

Use in other media

 * "Free Fallin'" is used in the 1996 film Jerry Maguire during a driving scene where the titular character (played by Tom Cruise) joyously sings along to the song in his car.

Credits and personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of Full Moon Fever.


 * Tom Petty – lead vocals, backing vocals, 12-string acoustic guitar
 * Mike Campbell – 12-string electric guitar
 * Jeff Lynne – backing vocals, bass guitar, guitars, keyboards
 * Phil Jones – drums, percussion