It's hard to think of a more iconic, well-respected and generally beloved rock star than Tom Petty. The world is still mourning his unexpected death in 2017 at the age of just 66, but his music is just as popular and relevant as ever. So it might surprise some fans to learn that Petty never actually had a number one hit, though he did have several songs hit the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, including the best-selling single of his storied career: "Free Fallin.'"
The opening track on Petty's debut solo album, 1989's Full Moon Fever, "Free Fallin'" wasn't just Petty's longest-charting song, it was his highest-charting solo track, peaking at #7 in January 1990 (his duet with Stevie Nicks, "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around," hit #3 in 1981). Not bad for a song Petty and Jeff Lynne, who would later end up being one of his bandmates in the Traveling Wilburys, reportedly wrote and recorded in just two days.
In an interview from the book Conversations With Tom Petty by Paul Zollo (excerpted by GQ), Petty said "Free Fallin'" was the first song he and Lynne wrote together.
"Jeff came over and I had a little electric keyboard that Bugs [technician and roadie Alan “Bugs” Weidel] had bought. I really gave him hell about buying it. I said, 'Why would you waste money on this? I would never play something like this,'" Petty recalled.
"He said, 'Well, look, take it into the house. If you write one song on it, it will pay for itself,'" he continued. "And I thought, 'Well, OK,' and Jeff was over and I had the little keyboard. And I started playing on it and I hit this riff; this little chord pattern that we would know as 'Free Fallin.' But I had a couple notes more in the riff. And Jeff looked up and said, 'Oh, that’s good. Can you leave out that last chord there and see what it does?'"
"And when I did that, it made this nice round of chords. And so I was just trying really to make Jeff smile as I was ad-libbing these words," Petty revealed.
"You know, 'She’s a good girl / Loves her mama / Loves Jesus and America too.' And Jeff smiled. I kept going. And I got right up to the chorus bit and I didn’t know what to sing, and he said [in a British accent] 'Free Fallin.'' And I tried to sing it, but I couldn’t get 'Free Fallin’' to fit into the line. So I just sang 'Free...' And then in the next line I sang 'Free Fallin.'' And then he perked up and said, 'That’s good. That’s great! But take your voice up an octave when you do it, when you go to the chorus.' And, bang, there it was: 'Free Fallin.'' I was very excited. I loved the song," the singer added.
Related: Bob Dylan, Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty's Epic '80s Performance Is a Rock and Roll ‘Fever Dream’
Of course, the rest of the world ended up loving the song, too (not to mention the music video, which was a mainstay on MTV for years). Whether listeners identified with the "bad boy" singing about leaving his girlfriend or the jilted "good girl" herself, the chorus embodied that universal emotion so many people feel at the end of a relationship.
The enduring popularity of "Free Fallin'" was a huge contributor to the fact that Full Moon Fever ended up being certified five times platinum in 2000 for achieving a total of five million sales since its release. Nearly 40 years later, people are still listening: At the time of this writing, "Free Fallin'" has been streamed 914,104,192 on Spotify alone.
Related: 1981 No. 1 Hit Ranked 'Biggest Duet of All Time' Became a Beloved Classic
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