Tom Petty – Free Fallin

About The Song

“Free Fallin” is the opening track from American musician Tom Petty’s debut solo album, Full Moon Fever (1989). The song was written by Petty and his writing partner for the album, Jeff Lynne, and features Lynne on backing vocals and bass guitar. The duo wrote and recorded the single in two days, making it the first song completed for Full Moon Fever.

“Free Fallin'” is one of Petty’s most famous tracks as well as his highest – and longest – charting song. It peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in January 1990, becoming his third and final top ten hit. Petty and The Heartbreakers performed the song at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1989, with Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin, and at the February 2008 Super Bowl XLII Halftime Show. The song is ranked No. 219 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It was featured in the film Jerry Maguire (1996) and The Sopranos episode 2.13, “Funhouse” (2000). Lou Reed selected the song as one of his “picks of 1989”. The song reached No. 2 on the Spotify Global Viral 50 following Petty’s death in 2017.

Petty explained in an interview with Billboard magazine that he and Jeff Lynne were sitting around trying to come up with a song, and Lynne got him to say “free falling”. The next day they recorded the song. Petty did not write the song about a specific person, but instead about what he saw during his frequent drives along Ventura Boulevard. Lynne said “Probably the second song we wrote [for Full Moon Fever] was ‘Free Fallin’.’ I got the chords to it and we both fleshed out the chorus. It was like ‘Evil Woman’ in that we got a repetitive chord sequence and then the melody turns into a chorus. Everyone who heard it knew it was a hit, and the next song we did was ‘I Won’t Back Down.'”

“Free Fallin'” is widely regarded as one of Petty’s best songs. Billboard and Rolling Stone both ranked the song number four on their lists of the greatest Tom Petty songs, while WatchMojo considers it to be Tom Petty’s best song.

Video

Lyrics

She’s a good girl, loves her mama
Loves Jesus and America too
She’s a good girl, who’s 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 standing 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

Now 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)
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)

(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, 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’, I’m-a free fallin’, I’m-a)