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Tom Petty - Runnin' Down A Dream

Tom Petty - Runnin' Down A Dream Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Full Moon Fever
Released: 1989

Runnin' Down A Dream Lyrics

It was a beautiful day, the sun beat down
I had the radio on, I was drivin'
Trees flew by, me and Del were singin' little Runaway
I was flyin'

Yeah Runnin' Down A Dream
That never would come to me
Workin' on a mystery, goin' wherever it leads
Runnin' down a dream

I felt so good like anything was possible
I hit cruise control and rubbed my eyes
The last three days the rain was unstoppable
It was always cold, no sunshine

Yeah runnin' down a dream
That never would come to me
Workin' on a mystery, goin' wherever it leads
Runnin' down a dream

I rolled on as the sky grew dark
I put the pedal down to make some time
There's something good waitin' down this road
I'm pickin' up whatever's mine

Yeah runnin' down a dream
That never would come to me
Workin' on a mystery, goin' wherever it leads
Runnin' down a dream

Writer/s: PETTY, TOM / LYNNE, JEFF / CAMPBELL, MICHAEL
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Runnin' Down A Dream

In this song, Petty sings about driving into the great wide open, with nothing but glorious possibility in his path.

Petty started running down his dream of being a rocker in 1961 when he met Elvis Presley. Petty, 11 years old, came to the Ocala, Florida set where Elvis was working on the film Follow That Dream - a title Tom took to heart. In a brief encounter, Petty saw how Elvis captivated onlookers and made the girls go crazy. Petty became fascinated with Elvis and set out to follow his path.

The animated video was inspired by a comic strip called Little Nemo In Slumberland by Winsor McKay. Each strip told the story of one of Nemo's dreams, and at the end, he always woke up.

Full Moon Fever was listed as a Tom Petty solo album even though members of The Heartbreakers played on it. Roy Orbison, George Harrison and Jeff Lynne also played on it.

Heartbreakers' guitarist Mike Campbell wrote this with Petty and Jeff Lynne. The three of them worked on the album at Mike's house. Tom and Mike were very impressed with Lynne's production techniques, and learned a lot from the experience. Mike gave us an example of Lynne's style: "We'd put the mics up on the drums, and he'd walk out and take the microphone over the drum and he'd turn it away from the drum facing the corner, and he'd go 'OK, record it like that.' Sure enough, 99% of the time he'd be right. We'd go, 'Yes sir, Mr. Lynne.' We learned so much from him about arrangements and countermelodies and all kinds of stuff." (Check out our interview with Mike Campbell.)

The line, "Me and Del were singin,' little 'Runaway'" is a reference to the 1961 Del Shannon hit "Runaway." Shannon is credited on the album for "barnyard noises," which can be heard just after this song ends on the album. Under the animal noises, Petty says, "Hello CD listeners. We have come to the point in this album where those listening on cassettes or records will have to stand - up or sit down - and turn over the record or tape. In fairness to those listeners, we will now take a few seconds before we begin Side 2. Thank you, and here is Side 2.

In 2007, the documentary Runnin' Down A Dream was released. Directed by Peter Bogdanovich, the film chronicles the career of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers played this at the halftime show of the Super Bowl in 2008. Rather than the usual medley of hits, the band played four full songs, the others being "American Girl," "I Won't Back Down" and "Free Fallin'."

Tom Petty - Free Fallin'

Tom Petty - Free Fallin' Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Full Moon Fever
Released: 1989

Free Fallin' Lyrics

She's a good girl, loves her mama
Loves Jesus and America too
She's a good girl, crazy 'bout Elvis
Loves horses and her boyfriend too

It's a long day living in Reseda
There's a freeway runnin' through the yard
And I'm a bad boy 'cause I don't even miss her
I'm a bad boy for breakin' her heart

And I'm free, Free Fallin'
Yeah I'm free, free fallin'

All the vampires walkin' through the valley
Move west down Ventura boulevard
And all the bad boys are standing in the shadows
All the good girls are home with broken hearts

And I'm free, free fallin'
Yeah I'm free, free fallin'
Free fallin', now I'm free fallin', now I'm
Free fallin', now I'm free fallin', now I'm

I want to glide down over Mulholland
I want to write her name in the sky
Gonna free fall out into nothin'
Gonna leave this world for a while

And I'm free, free fallin'
Yeah I'm free, free fallin'

Writer/s: LYNNE, JEFF / PETTY, TOM
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Free Fallin'

Jeff Lynne, famous for his work in ELO, produced the Full Moon Fever album and wrote this song with Tom Petty early in their collaboration. According to liner notes in Petty's Playback box set, he and Jeff Lynne were playing some elaborate stuff on the keyboard that all started with three simple chords. Lynne suggested that Tom stop all the hard stuff and just sing some words to those three chords, and he came up with "She's a good girl... loves her mama..." just to make Jeff smile, and they kept going from there. Petty says that it was Lynne who came up with the title, but it took Tom a little while before he figured out the best way to sing the phrase.

Mike Campbell is The Heartbreakers' guitarist. He has also produced and written the music for many of their songs, as well as "The Boys of Summer" and "The Heart Of The Matter" for Don Henley. Mike told us about working with Jeff Lynne: "When we did that first record with Jeff Lynne, Full Moon Fever, that was an amazing time for me because it was mostly just the three of us - me and Tom and Jeff - working at my house. Jeff Lynne is an amazing record-maker. It was so exciting for a lot of reasons. First of all, our band energy in the studio had gotten into kind of a rut, we were having some issues with our drummer and just kind of at the end of our rope in terms of inspiration - having a lot of trouble cutting tracks in the studio.

This project came along and really we were just doing it for fun at the beginning, but Jeff would come in and every day he would blow my mind. It was so exciting to have him and Tom come over and go, 'OK, here's this song,' and then Jeff would just go. I'd never seen this done before, he'd say, 'OK, here's what we're going to do: Put a drum machine down. Now put up a mic, we're going to do some acoustic guitars. Put up another mic, were going to do a keyboard. OK, here's an idea for the bass. Mike, let's try some guitar on this. I've got an idea for a background part here...'

Sure enough, within five or six hours, the record would be done, and we'd just sit back and go, 'How the f-ck did you do that?' We were used to being in the studio and like 'OK, here's how the song goes' and everybody would set up to play and just laboriously run the song into the ground, and it usually got worse and worse from trying to get the groove and the spirit and trying to get a performance out of five guys at once. This guy walked in and he knew exactly how to put the pieces together, and he always had little tricks, like with the background vocals how he would slide them in and layer them, and little melodies here and there. Tom and I were soaking it up. Pretty amazing, a very exciting time, like going to musical college or something." (Read more in our interview with Mike Campbell.)

In a 2006 interview with Esquire magazine, Petty said: "Free Fallin' is a very good song. Maybe it would be one of my favorites if it hadn't become this huge anthem. But I'm grateful that people like it."

The lyrics deal with Los Angeles culture, mentioning actual places in the area: Reseda, Mulholland and Ventura Boulevard. It implies that the people of L.A. will casually use others for personal gain, as the singer has just dumped a girl and doesn't even miss her.

The video may have been ahead of its time in that it featured skateboarding before the X Games existed and action sports went mainstream. Legendary skater Mark "Gator" Rogowski appears in the video.

Petty and the Heartbreakers played this to close out their set at the halftime show of the Super Bowl in 2008. The song turned out to be appropriate for the New England Patriots, who were undefeated going into the game and led at halftime, only to lose at the end to the New York Giants. In 2002, when the Patriots won their first Super Bowl, the featured song at halftime was "Beautiful Day" by U2.

A live version by John Mayer returned this song to the US Hot 100 in July 2008.

Petty played this on Saturday Night Live on May 20, 1989 along with "Runnin' Down A Dream." (thanks, John - Colorado Springs, CO)

The song achieved its highest position on the UK singles chart to date in May 2012 after being covered by contestant Max Milner on the music talent show The Voice. It previously peaked at #64 in 1989.

Petty and Lynne wrote and recorded "Free Fallin'" in just two days, the first tune completed for Full Moon Fever. "We had a multitude of acoustic guitars," Petty told Rolling Stone of the song's Byrds-y feel. "So it made this incredibly dreamy sound."

Tom Petty - I Won't Back Down

Tom Petty - I Won't Back Down Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Full Moon Fever
Released: 1989

I Won't Back Down Lyrics

Well, I Won't Back Down
No I won't back down
You can stand me up at the gates of hell
But I won't back down

No I'll stand my ground
Won't be turned around
And I'll keep this world from draggin' me down
Gonna stand my ground

And I won't back down
(I won't back down)
Hey baby, there ain't no easy way out
(I won't back down)
Hey I will stand my ground
And I won't back down
Well I know what's right
I got just one life
In a world that keeps on pushin' me around
But I'll stand my ground
And I won't back down
(I won't back down)
Hey baby, there ain't no easy way out
(I won't back down)
Hey I will stand my ground
(I won't back down)
Hey baby, there ain't no easy way out
(I won't back down)
Hey I won't back down
(I won't back down)
Hey, baby, there ain't no easy way out
(I won't back down)
I will stand my ground
And I won't back down
No I won't back down

Writer/s: LYNNE, JEFF / PETTY, TOM
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

I Won't Back Down Song Chart

This was Petty's first single without the Heartbreakers credited as his backing band. Members of the band did play on the album.

This was the first single from Full Moon Fever, which was produced and co-written by Jeff Lynne. Petty and Lynne worked on the album at Mike Campbell's house. As guitarist for the Heartbreakers, Mike has written and produced many songs with Petty. He told us what happened when they brought the album to MCA Records: "We thought it was really good, we were real excited about it. We played it for the record company and they said, 'Well, we don't hear any hits on here.' We were very despondent about the whole thing and we went back and recorded another track, a Byrds song called 'I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better,' thinking at the time that maybe they'll like this one. In the interim, they changed A&R departments and a whole new group of people were in there. We brought the same record back like six months later and they loved it - they said 'Oh, there's three hits on here.' We were vindicated on that one. It was the same record. We played the same thing for them and they went for it. I guess it's a situation of timing and the right people that wanted to get inspired about it. At the end of the line, if the songs are good and if the public connects with certain songs, that really is the true test, but you've got to get it out there." (Read more in our interview with Mike Campbell.)

Before recording Full Moon Fever, an arsonist burned down Petty's house while he was in it. He escaped and spent much of the next few months driving between hotel rooms and a rented house. It was on these drives that he came up with many of the songs for the album, and the fire was a huge influence. Petty felt grateful to be alive, and the whole incident had a calming effect on him.

The video featured The Beatles' Ringo Starr on drums and George Harrison on guitar. It also featured ELO frontman Jeff Lynne on guitar. (thanks, Melania - Moscow, Russia)

George W. Bush used this in his 2000 Presidential campaign. When Petty found out, he threatened to sue, as he did not support Bush. Bush stopped using the song but won the election anyway. Petty's home state of Florida decided the election when Bush won the state by a very slim margin.

Petty performed this for Al Gore at his house an hour after he conceded the election (the second time) to George W. Bush.

Petty played this on September 21, 2001 as part of a telethon to benefit the victims of the terrorist attacks on America. Celebrities at the event included Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks, Bruce Springsteen, and Tom Cruise. Almost 60 million people watched the special in the US.

In response to this being used as a patriotic anthem after September 11th, Petty said: "The song has also been adopted by nice people for good things, too. I just write them, I can't control where it ends up."

This was one of four songs Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers played at the halftime show of the Super Bowl in 2008. The others were "American Girl," "Runnin' Down A Dream" and "Free Fallin'."

Petty recalled the recording of this song to Mojo magazine January 2010: "At the session George Harrison sang and played the guitar. I had a terrible cold that day, and George sent to the store and bought a ginger root, boiled it and had me stick my head in the pot to get the ginger steam to open up my sinuses, and then I ran in and did the take."