‘Breakdown’ is the first single from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' self-titled debut album. It became a Top 40 hit in the United States and Canada. Played live, Petty sometimes incorporated ‘Breakdown’ with Ray Charles's ‘Hit the Road Jack’. A live recording of this variation appears on The Live Anthology.
‘Breakdown’ was a song written and recorded for the band's debut album. Initially, the song had lead guitarist Mike Campbell with a distinct guitar lick being played only near the end of the song. While playing it back one night, Tom Petty and Dwight Twilley, a friend of Phil Seymour, were in the studio, and Twilley enjoyed it. He suggested that the lick should be used throughout the song, and Petty obliged. At 2 AM, he gathered the Heartbreakers to join him in re-recording the song. Their final take was seven to eight minutes long, but it was pared down to 2 minutes and 39 seconds on the album.[5] Guests on the song's recording include guitarist Jeff Jourard, a common collaborator with the band in their early days, and Phil Seymour, who sings backing vocals.
Lyrically more sparse than most Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers tracks, ‘Breakdown’ finds Petty ready to end a union that has become toxic. "Go ahead and give it to me," he tells her. When the band first recorded this song, it was 7-minutes long, with an extended guitar solo at the end. The final version clocks in at a tidy 2:43.
This was Petty's first single. When it was first released in January 1977 it went nowhere, but after months of touring, it was re-released in October and made it to #40 in the US. This was featured in the 1978 movie FM. About a radio station in California, the movie was the basis for the TV show WKRP in Cincinnati. This was also included on the soundtrack. Record World called it a "slow, sultry rocker, dominated by guitar, with Petty's distinctive vocal again standing out."
Label – Shelter
Songwriter – Tom Petty
Producer - Denny Cordell
SONG LYRICS
[Verse]It's alright if you love me
It's alright if you don't
I'm not afraid of you runnin' away honey
I get the feeling you won't
Say there ain't no sense in pretending
Your eyes give you away
Something inside you is feeling like I do
We said all there is to say
[Chorus]
Baby
Breakdown, go ahead and give it to me
Breakdown, honey, take me through the night
(Take me, baby, breakdown, ooh)
Breakdown, now I'm standin' here, can't you see?
Breakdown, it's alright
It's alright, it's alright
[Chorus]
Breakdown, go ahead and give it to me
Breakdown, honey, take me through the night
(Take me, baby, breakdown, ooh)
Breakdown, now I'm standin' here, can't you see?
Breakdown, it's alright
It's alright, it's alright