‘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.
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.
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. The music video for the song was directed by Piers Garland and Julien Temple and features a teenage girl seen in various places around Los Angeles, including a 1960s pool party and a 1980s skate park. Petty is also seen performing in these places and others, such as the former Westside Pavilion mall.
Label – MCA
Songwriters – Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne
Producers – Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, Mike Campbell
SONG LYRICS
[Verse 1]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
[Verse 2]
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
[Chorus]
And I'm free
Free fallin'
Yeah, I'm free
Free fallin'
[Verse 3]
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
[Chorus]
And I'm free
I'm free fallin'
Yeah, I'm free
Free fallin'
[Post-Chorus]
(Free fallin', I'm-a free fallin', I'm-a)
(Free fallin', I'm-a free fallin', I'm-a)
[Bridge]
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
[Chorus]
Now I'm free (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 (Free fallin', I'm-a free fallin', I'm-a)
Free fallin' (Free fallin', I'm-a free fallin', I'm-a)
[Outro]
(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)
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 free fallin', I'm-a)