Free Fallin'

Album

Full Moon Fever

Label

MCA Records

Genre

Heartland rock

Composer(s)

Tom Petty;Jeff Lynne

Entered Chart

Nov 4, 1989

Peak Date

Jan 27, 1990

Released

October 27, 1989

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

MCA 53748

B-Side

Down The Line

Jeff Lynne, famous for his work in ELO, co-produced the Full Moon Fever album and wrote this song with Tom Petty early in their collaboration. According to liner notes in Petty's Playback box set, he and Lynne were playing some elaborate stuff on the keyboard that all started with three simple chords. Lynne suggested that Tom stop all the hard stuff and just sing some words to those three chords, and he came up with "She's a good girl... loves her mama..." just to make Jeff smile, and they kept going from there. Petty says that it was Lynne who came up with the title, but it took Tom a little while before he figured out the best way to sing the phrase. "Free Fallin'" was the third single from Tom Petty's first solo album, Full Moon Fever, following "I Won't Back Down" and "Runnin' Down A Dream." Along with Jeff Lynne, the other creative driver on the album was Mike Campbell, guitarist in Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. He was Petty's right-hand man, producing and writing the music for many of the band's songs, as well as "The Boys of Summer" and "The Heart Of The Matter" for Don Henley. In a Songfacts interview with Campbell, he talked about making the album with Jeff Lynne. "That was an amazing time for me because it was mostly just the three of us - me and Tom and Jeff - working at my house," he said. "Jeff Lynne is an amazing record-maker. It was so exciting for a lot of reasons. First of all, our band energy in the studio had gotten into kind of a rut, we were having some issues with our drummer and just kind of at the end of our rope in terms of inspiration - having a lot of trouble cutting tracks in the studio. This project came along and really we were just doing it for fun at the beginning, but Jeff would come in and every day he would blow my mind. It was so exciting to have him and Tom come over and go, 'OK, here's this song,' and then Jeff would just go. I'd never seen this done before, he'd say, 'OK, here's what we're going to do: Put a drum machine down. Now put up a mic, we're going to do some acoustic guitars. Put up another mic, were going to do a keyboard. OK, here's an idea for the bass. Mike, let's try some guitar on this. I've got an idea for a background part here...' Sure enough, within five or six hours, the record would be done, and we'd just sit back and go, 'How the f-ck did you do that?' We were used to being in the studio and like 'OK, here's how the song goes' and everybody would set up to play and just laboriously run the song into the ground, and it usually got worse and worse from trying to get the groove and the spirit and trying to get a performance out of five guys at once. This guy walked in and he knew exactly how to put the pieces together, and he always had little tricks, like with the background vocals how he would slide them in and layer them, and little melodies here and there. Tom and I were soaking it up. Pretty amazing, a very exciting time, like going to musical college or something." In a 2006 interview with Esquire magazine, Petty said: "'Free Fallin'' is a very good song. Maybe it would be one of my favorites if it hadn't become this huge anthem. But I'm grateful that people like it." The lyrics deal with Los Angeles culture, mentioning actual places in the area: Reseda, Mulholland and Ventura Boulevard. It implies that the people of LA will casually use others for personal gain, as the singer has just dumped a girl and doesn't even miss her. Petty was born and raised in Gainesville, Florida and moved to LA with The Heartbreakers in 1974. His outsider perspective came in handy in this song. Directed by Julien Temple, the music video was ahead of its time in that it featured skateboarding before the X Games existed and action sports went mainstream. Legendary skater Mark "Gator" Rogowski appears in the video. Petty considered this song a ballad; it's one of his few hits without a guitar solo. There are plenty of ballads on his albums, but his record companies rarely released them as singles. Petty and the Heartbreakers played "Free Fallin'" to close out their set at the halftime show of the Super Bowl in 2008. The song turned out to be appropriate for the New England Patriots, who were undefeated going into the game and led at halftime, only to lose at the end to the New York Giants. In 2002, when the Patriots won their first Super Bowl, the featured song at halftime was "Beautiful Day" by U2. A live version by John Mayer returned this song to the US Hot 100 in July 2008, going to #51. Petty performed this song, along with "Runnin' Down A Dream," with The Heartbreakers on Saturday Night Live when they were the musical guests on May 20, 1989. Their record company, MCA, wanted them to play "I Won't Back Down," which was out as a single and climbing the charts, but Petty defied them. Petty and Lynne wrote and recorded "Free Fallin'" in just two days, the first tune completed for Full Moon Fever. "We had a multitude of acoustic guitars," Petty told Rolling Stone of the song's Byrds-y feel. "So it made this incredibly dreamy sound." Petty often told a story about performing this song at a pivotal night in his career. His label, MCA, rejected the Full Moon Fever album when he submitted it in 1988, claiming they didn't hear a hit. Crestfallen, he went to a dinner party with George Harrison and Jeff Lynne at the home of Mo Ostin, head of Warner Bros. Records. Harrison had them break out the guitars and play "Free Fallin'," which everyone thought was great. When Petty explained that it wasn't good enough for his label, Ostin offered to sign him and put it out. They did the deal, but kept it secret until Petty fulfilled his commitment to MCA. Ostin didn't have to put it out though: In 1989, management changed at MCA; the new regime liked Full Moon Fever and released it. While MCA kept him in limbo, Petty teamed up with Lynne, Harrison, Roy Orbison and Bob Dylan to form the Traveling Wilburys, a fruitful and highly acclaimed collaboration that sold over 3 million copies of their first album. In 2012, Max Milner's version went to #63 in the UK after he performed it on the music talent show The Voice UK. Here's what Tom Petty said about this song on his VH1 Storytellers appearance: "'I used to ride down Mulholland Drive and make up songs. Some of the songs were good, and some of the songs just wouldn't swing. I had this one: [sings] 'Mulholland Drive' and I never could get anywhere with that song. So, I sat down one day with my friend Jeff Lynne and we were playing around on the keyboard. I hit this lick and he said, 'That's a good lick you got there,' and I played it again. So, just to make him laugh I started to make up words: She's a good girl, loves her mama Loves Jesus and America too She's a good girl, crazy about Elvis... And he goes, 'Good.' I said, 'What? What was good?' 'It's all good, just sing that.'" The girl in the music video is Devon Kidd (born Devon Renee Jenkin). She also had roles in Enemy Of The State, Slammer Girls and Slumber Party Massacre III. She was a gymnast and model when she got the call to audition for "Free Fallin'." "I don't know if you want to do it," her agent said. "It's a small job." She knew Tom Petty and "Free Fallin'" and jumped at the opportunity. Today, it's probably the role she's best known for.

She's a good girl, loves her mama
Loves Jesus, and America too
She's a good girl, crazy 'bout Elvis
Loves horses and her boyfriend too

And it's a long day, livin' in Reseda
There's a freeway runnin' through the yard
And I'm a bad boy, 'cause I don't even miss her
I'm a bad boy for breakin' her heart

And I'm free
Free fallin'
Yeah, I'm free
Free fallin'

All the vampires walkin' through the valley
Move west down Ventura Boulevard
And all the bad boys are standin' in the shadows
And the good girls are home with broken hearts

And I'm free
I'm free fallin'
Yeah, I'm free
Free fallin'

(Free fallin', I'm-a free fallin', I'm-a)
(Free fallin', I'm-a free fallin', I'm-a)

I wanna glide down over Mulholland
I wanna write her name in the sky
I'm gonna free fall out into nothin'
Gonna leave this world for a while

And I'm free (fallin', I'm-a free fallin', I'm-a)
Free fallin' (free fallin', I'm-a free fallin', I'm-a)
Yeah, I'm free (fallin', I'm-a free fallin', I'm-a)
Free fallin' (free fallin', I'm-a free fallin', I'm-a)

(Free fallin', I'm-a free fallin', I'm-a)
Yeah, I'm free
Free fallin'
Oh
(Free fallin', I'm-a free fallin', I'm-a)
Free fallin' (free fallin', I'm-a free fallin', I'm-a)
And I'm free (free fallin', I'm-a free fallin', I'm-a)
Oh, free fallin' (free fallin', I'm-a free fallin', I'm-a)
(Free fallin', I'm-a free fallin', I'm-a)
Free fallin' (free fallin', I'm-a)