Free Fallin'

For other uses, see Free-fall (disambiguation).

"Free Fallin'"
Single by Tom Petty
from the album Full Moon Fever
B-side
ReleasedOctober 27, 1989 (1989-10-27)
Genre
Length4:14
LabelMCA
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
Tom Petty singles chronology
"Runnin' Down a Dream"
(1989) 		"Free Fallin'"
(1989) 		"A Face in the Crowd"
(1990)
Music video
"Free Fallin'" on YouTube

"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.[4] 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.[5] 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".[6] The song reached No. 2 on the Spotify Global Viral 50 following Petty's death in 2017.[7]

  1. ^ Smith, Troy L. (February 27, 2018). "250 greatest Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Songs: Part 2 (#200-151)". cleveland.com. Retrieved October 5, 2019.
  2. ^ a b Goldsmith, Melissa Ursula Dawn (2019). Listen to Classic Rock! Exploring a Musical Genre. ABC-CLIO. p. 180. ISBN 978-1-4408-6579-4.
  3. ^ Harrington, Jim (2015). "Tom Petty - "Free Fallin'". In Dimery, Robert (ed.). 1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die. New York: Universe. p. 633.
  4. ^ Whitburn, Joel (1993). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961–1993. Record Research. p. 188.
  5. ^ "Topic Galleries". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on February 8, 2008.
  6. ^ Rolling Stone, March 8, 1990
  7. ^ "Global Viral 50". Spotify Charts. Archived from the original on October 7, 2017. Retrieved October 7, 2017.