Tom Petty had a successful career with his band, the Heartbreakers, releasing a string of songs like “Refugee,” “Breakdown,” and “Don’t Do Me Like That.” But, in 1989, the rock icon embarked on a solo career, introducing fans to his debut solo album, Full Moon Fever.
One song on the 12-track collection is the beloved feel-good road-trip anthem “Free Fallin',” once featured in an iconic scene of the film Jerry Maguire, in which actor Tom Cruise sings the lyrics at the top of his lungs while driving. Even today, the tune resonates with listeners far and wide, with its laid-back melody, nostalgic lyrics, and Petty’s signature vocals on the 4-minute, 14-second offering.
Although “Free Fallin’” paints a vivid picture of the L.A. scene, particularly along Ventura Boulevard, to many, it may come as a surprise that Petty, who co-wrote and recorded the song in just two days with collaborator Jeff Lynne, initially started the song as a joke.
“I was playing the keyboard and I just happened to hit on that main riff, the intro of the song, and I think Jeff said something like, ‘That’s a really good riff but there’s one chord too many,’ so I think I cut it back a chord and then, really just to amuse Jeff, honestly, I just sang that first verse,” the late Petty recalled, in an interview with Billboard. “Then he starts laughing. Honestly, I thought I was just amusing Jeff, but then I got to the chorus of the song, and he leaned over to me and said the word, ‘freefalling.’ And I went to sing that, and he said, ‘No, take your voice up and see how that feels.’”
“I took my voice up an octave or two, but I couldn’t get the whole word in. So I sang ‘freeee,’ then ‘free falling.’ And we both knew at that moment that I’d hit on something pretty good,” he continued. “It was that fast. He had to go somewhere, and I wrote the last verse and kind of just polished the rest of the song, and when I saw him the next day, I played him the song, and he was like, ‘Wow, you did that last night?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah.’ And he said. ‘We’ve got to go cut this,’ and we just took off to Mike Campbell’s studio, where we knew we could get in and get it done that day. So we went in and made the record that day.”
“Free Fallin’” has gone on to become Petty’s highest charting Hot 100 single of his career, where it stayed for 21 weeks. Despite that feat, none of Petty’s memorable tracks were No. 1 hits. While “Free Fallin’” did top the Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, the song peaked at No. 7 on the Hot 100 chart in 1990.
Related: 1996 Folk Rock Classic, Originally Deemed a Commercial Radio Failure, Became a Timeless Road Trip Anthem
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