The only song Tom Petty knew would be a huge hit
(Source: Far Out / YouTube still image)
By the time a song reaches the ears of a music fan, it’s usually months, if not years, old. That’s why stories often circulate about bands and artists who grew tired of their own music because they spent so much time writing, rehearsing, and recording the song long before promoting it and playing it in concerts. For Tom Petty, however, the fact that he never got bored of a particular song was the reason he knew it would be a hit.
Some songs are fantastic when they first come out. They sound so new, so fresh, so catchy. They get played on repeat for a few weeks like they’re the hot new hit of the moment. But they quickly become overused or exhausted. That’s what makes a one-hit wonder, or a fleeting 15 minutes of fame, when a song falls down the charts as quickly as it rises. And all of this happens after it leaves the band’s rehearsal room.
It seems like a good way to test a song’s longevity. Behind the scenes, long before a song is released, musicians have been living with that music for a long time. It’s not an instant process, as songs take a long time to get right, both on the drawing board of the actual composition and in the details of production or working out how to convey it to a live audience. By the time a track is officially released, it’s already old to the people making it. They’ve probably played it hundreds of times, so if they’re already sick of it, it’s probably a good sign that the song doesn’t have too much longevity.
Tom Petty is committed to this ethos. In fact, it was the ethos that was at the heart of his debut solo album, Full moon feverHe hoped that even after working on the record for so long, his fans would never get tired of them because he never got tired of them.
“I lived with this album for a year before I put it out, and I was just crazy about it,” Petty said. He couldn’t even pretend to be cool about the record. Months after its initial release, listening to the album still made him genuinely excited, incredibly proud and confident in his creation even before it received the critical and cultural acclaim it was destined to find. With each repeated listen, even after the album was fully mixed, mastered, produced and ready for release, Petty was simply overwhelmed with happy anticipation of getting it out. “It was embarrassing how excited I was!” he said.
There was one track in particular that he was confident about and never grew tired of during the year he spent on the album. “I was so confident about ‘Free Fallin’ that I never grew tired of listening to it,” he said. In fact, he was so confident about the release that he feared his premonition of success would shake him to his core as an artist if it didn’t come to pass. “If it failed, I don’t think I would want to do it anymore,” Petty said, claiming the album’s failure would make him rethink his position within the industry or the creative field in general.
But luckily, Petty was right all along. Full moon fever is considered the absolute pinnacle of his success. It was both a commercial success, entering charts around the world, and an artistic triumph. His feelings about “Free Fallin” were especially right, as the song became his most defining hit and one of the most popular classic rock songs of its time.
Related topics
Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift hold hands as they walk off the stage together after the singer’s final Eras tour show in Amsterdam
The Final Shape has revived my love for Destiny 2
This underrated fantasy series found the Voldemort story that Harry Potter should have told
About The Author
