| "Free Fallin'" | |||||
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| Single by Tom Petty from the album Full Moon Fever |
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| B-side | "Free Fallin" (Live) US 7" single only "Down the Line" US cassette single only "Love Is a Long Road" UK 12", 7" and CD single only |
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| Released | 1989 | ||||
| Format | 7" single cassette single (US) 12" single (UK) CD single (UK) |
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| Recorded | 1989 | ||||
| Genre | Rock | ||||
| Length | 4:14 | ||||
| Label | MCA Records | ||||
| Writer | Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne | ||||
| Producer | Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Mike Campbell | ||||
| Tom Petty singles chronology | |||||
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"Free Fallin" is the opening track from Tom Petty's 1989 solo album, Full Moon Fever. The song was written by Petty and his writing partner for the album, Jeff Lynne. The song was released as a single, and was a top 10 U.S. hit in January, 1990. It also topped the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. Considered to be one of the more introspective songs in Petty's body of work, "Free Fallin'" uses a simple acoustic riff coupled with offbeat lyrics. The song has an easy, mid-tempo acoustic rock structure, and features Petty's signature vocal style. It has become one of his most popular solo songs. Imagery of the Los Angeles area is evident throughout the song, with references to:
- Reseda - a neighborhood of Los Angeles
- "The valley" - the San Fernando Valley, in which Reseda is located
- Ventura Boulevard - a primary east-west thouroughfare in the San Fernando Valley
- "Mulholland" - a reference to Mulholland Drive, a well-known road in Los Angeles
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Inspiration
In interviews, Petty says the song was written after a roadie purchased a keyboard that Tom did not particularly care for. The roadie told Petty that if he wrote one song on it, that it would pay for itself. Petty ended up writing "Free Fallin'" on the keyboard, and played the opening riff for Jeff Lynne, his producer. "Just to make Jeff smile I sang 'She's a good girl, loves her mama' and from there I wrote the first and second verses completely spontaneously," Petty said. Axl Rose once asked Tom how he came up with the line about vampires to which Tom replied, "When I'm driving, sometimes I see these shadowy-looking people just off the sidewalks, around the post office. I always thought of them as vampires for some reason."
Cover versions
- The song was covered by Petty's friend, Stevie Nicks on the Party of Five TV soundtrack and included in her 1998 box set, Enchanted: the Works of Stevie Nicks.
- Country singer Deanna Carter covered the song for the King of the Hill soundtrack
- The song has been covered by Keith Urban, Death Cab For Cutie, and many other mainstream artists in concert.
- Korean-American R&B singers Taebin and Teddy covered the song for their record labels (YG Entertainment) album YG Family 2 in 2002. However instead of a normal cover, the main verses were re-written into rap verses (in Korean) and the chorus altered slightly. The title remained the same. The song was not released as a single.
Appearances in other media
- A modified version of the opening verse was used in the Propaghandi song "White, Proud, Stupid."
- De La Soul sampled the track for "Fallin" (1994).
- A song by Mya also called Free Fallin' on her 2003 album Moodring contains an altered version of the original chorus: "She's been free...free fallin'". Otherwise, this chorus is sung basically the same way as in the original song. The song also samples the riff of Petty's original.
- The song has been sampled by rapper Pimp C for his song "I'm Free" off his 2006 album Pimpalation.
- The song has been featured in the soundtrack to the television show, Party of Five and the movie, Jerry Maguire.
- An instrumental sample was used in an episode of ER entitled Freefall, which has an incident involving a helicopter that plummets off a rooftop and literally "freefalls" down the building creating a huge disaster at the hospital.
- John Mayer performed an acoustic version of Free Fallin' at the 2007 Bridge School Benefit Concert.
Trivia
- It is #177 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
- The iconic video for "Free Fallin'" featured vert skateboarding star Mark "Gator" Rogowski, his girlfriend Brandi McClain and actress Devon Jenkin.
- Tom Petty performed Free Fallin with Axl Rose from Guns N' Roses at MTV Video Music Award in 1989
- Free Fallin' is on the List of songs deemed inappropriate by Clear Channel following the September 11, 2001 attacks.
- The popular Canadian teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation, which is known for named each episode after an 80s hit song, named a two part episode after this song. The episodes faced the issue of panic attacks.
