Songoftheday 12/16/16 - She's a good girl loves her mama, loves Jesus and America too...
from the album Full Moon Fever (1989)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #7 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 12
Today's song of the day comes from Tom Petty, whose first album apart from his band the Heartbreakers (at least in credit), Full Moon Fever, had landed him a pair of top-40 pop hits with "I Won't Back Down" and "Runnin' Down The Dream". Both of those songs also went to #1 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock radio chart. The third single from the project was "Free Fallin'", a laid-back dip into the Los Angeles life leaving behind a girl that he dumped that he seemingly floats away from to move to California. Written by Petty with ELO's Jeff Lynne and Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell, it ended up being one of his most remembered classics...
"Free Fallin'" became Tom's highest-charting single on the American pop chart either with or without the Heartbreakers in January of 1989. The song also was his third #1 Mainstream Rock radio hit in a row from the Full Moon Fever album, and also crossed over to #17 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") chart (his biggest hit there). Internationally, the song reached the top ten in New Zealand (#4) and Canada (#5), but was only a minor hit in the UK at #59. The song would grab a nomination for a Grammy in 1990 for Best Rock Male Vocal, losing out to Don Henley's End Of The Innocence album, while the Full Moon Fever album lost the Album of the Year nod to Bonnie Raitt's Nick Of Time.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
At the 1989 MTV Video Awards, Petty performed "Free Fallin'" with Guns N' Roses' Axl Rose...
In 1996, Stevie Nicks covered the song of her friend for the TV show Party Of Five...
Now back to Petty and the Heartbreakers on tour in 1991...
...and again in 1994...
Country singer Deana Carter covered the track for yet another TV show, King Of The Hill; here she is at Farm Aid in 1999...
Here's Petty and the Heartbreakers from 1999 at the legendary Fillmore in San Francisco...
R&B/pop singer Mya interpolated "Free Fallin'" for a different perspective on a same-named track in 2003...
In 2008, John Mayer released a live single of the song, and went to #51 on the pop Hot 100 and #33 on the Adult Top-40 radio list...
Using Mayer's arrangement of the song, British singer Max Milner nearly bested Petty's version on the charts in 2012, peaking at #63...
Finally, back to Tom at the Super Bowl in 2008...
Up tomorrow: Raspy-voiced singer brings on the evening.
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