"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 duo wrote and recorded the single in two days, making it the first song completed for Full Moon Fever.[1] "Free Fallin'" is one of Petty's most famous tracks, as well as his longest charter. Petty and The Heartbreakers performed the song at MTV Video Music Awards in 1989 with Axl Rose and at the February 2008 Super Bowl XLII Halftime Show.[2] The song is ranked #177 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Los Angeles-area references
References to the Los Angeles area appear in the lyrics of the song, including:
Track listings
| Writer(s) |
| 1. |
"Free Fallin'" |
Petty, Lynne |
4:14 |
| 2. |
"Love Is A Long Road" |
Petty, Mike Campbell |
4:06 |
| 8:20 |
| Writer(s) |
| 1. |
"Free Fallin'" |
Petty, Lynne |
4:14 |
| 2. |
"Love Is A Long Road" |
Petty, Mike Campbell |
4:06 |
| 3. |
"Free Fallin'" (live) |
Petty, Lynne |
|
Chart History
The song topped Billboard's Album Rock Tracks chart the week ending August 26, 1989 and spent 33 weeks on the chart, making it Petty's longest charting track. The single peaked at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January, 1990.[1] Later in 2008, "Free Fallin'" made a brief appearance in the Ireland Singles Top 50, hitting #49.[3]
Cover versions
Several artists have recorded covers of the song. Keith Urban's live cover appears on his 2005 DVD Livin' Right Now. Stevie Nicks did a studio cover on her 1998 album Enchanted. American singer-songwriter John Mayer also included a live cover version of "Free Fallin'" on his 2008 live album/DVD Where the Light Is. In Episode 119 - 'Triple Threat' of Cold Case, the song was covered with the second verse replaced with "Va Pensiero" from Verdi's Nabucco, sung in Italian by Russian singer-songwriter Elena Satine. In 2008 the song was covered by German singer/songwriter Willer on his album 'The only Way'. In 2006, rapper Pimp C sampled the song for "I'm Free," off his album Pimpalation. Chamillionaire sampled the song in 2009 for his track "Good Morning".
Quote
- "We had a multitude of acoustic guitars, so it made this incredibly dreamy sound." - Tom Petty[1]
References
External links
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
