American Girl (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers song)

Last updated

"American Girl"
American Girl - Tom Petty.jpg
Single by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
from the album Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
B-side "The Wild One, Forever"
ReleasedFebruary 1977 (1977-02)
RecordedJuly 4, 1976
Studio Shelter Studios, Hollywood
Genre
Length3:35
Label Shelter
Songwriter(s) Tom Petty
Producer(s) Denny Cordell
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers singles chronology
"Breakdown"
(1977)		"American Girl"
(1977)		"I Need to Know"
(1978)
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakerssingles chronology
"Something in the Air"
(1994)		"You Don't Know How It Feels"
(1994)

"American Girl" is a rock song written by Tom Petty and recorded by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for their self-titled debut album in 1976. It was released as a single and did not chart in the United States, but peaked at No. 40 in the UK for the week ending August 27, 1977. It was re-released in 1994 as the second single from Petty's Greatest Hits album and peaked at No. 68 in the U.S. Cash Box Top 100. [5]

Contents

Despite limited chart success, "American Girl" became one of Petty's most popular songs and a staple of classic rock. It has been consistently rated as his best song, only surpassed by "Free Fallin'" otherwise, and one of the best rock songs of all time, and has been called "more than a classic rock standard — it's practically part of the American literary canon." [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] It has also been used in several movies and television shows, often during a scene in which a character, much like the protagonist in the song's lyrics, is "longing for something bigger than their current existence." [11]

"American Girl" was the last song performed in concert by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. They played it to close out the encore of their performance on September 25, 2017, at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California, the final concert of their 40th Anniversary Tour. Petty died of complications from cardiac arrest after an accidental prescription medication overdose on October 2, just over a week later. [12]

It is ranked number 169 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. [13]

Composition and recording

"American Girl" was written by Petty around the time he and the Heartbreakers signed their first recording contract. It was recorded on the 4th of July in 1976, the Bicentennial of the United States. [14]

"American Girl" uses standard rock instrumentation of electric guitars, electric bass, drums, and keyboards. The tempo is fast and "urgent," [15] and is built on a repeated jangling guitar riff based on a "Bo Diddley beat." [16] As described in Rolling Stone, "The supercharged riff set the template for decades of Petty hits, but it was also an homage to the Byrds: Petty and Mike Campbell's twin guitars mirrored Roger McGuinn's 12-string, infusing the folk-rock sounds of the 1960s with New Wave energy." [7]

Lyrics and rumors

Beaty Towers on the University of Florida campus Beatty Towers - UF.jpg
Beaty Towers on the University of Florida campus

Due to the lyrics about a desperate girl on a balcony hearing "cars roll by out on 441," the song was rumored to have been written about a college student who committed suicide by jumping from the Beaty Towers residence hall at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. Beaty Towers is located on the edge of the university campus alongside U.S. Route 441 (called NW 13th Street through the city), and the residence hall opened in 1967, when Petty was still a teenager living in his hometown of Gainesville.

According to Carl Van Ness, the University of Florida's former historian, there have been many suicides in the school's history, but since the university does not keep a file of them, he "doesn't know for sure" if any involved a jump from Beaty Towers. [17] University of Florida spokesman Steve Orlando said that no one has committed suicide by jumping off Beaty Towers, [18] which would be a difficult endeavor since the dorm rooms have narrow windows and no balconies. [19] [20] [21]

When asked directly about the story in the book Conversations with Tom Petty, Petty responded:

Urban legend. It's become a huge urban myth down in Florida. That's just not at all true. The song has nothing to do with that. But that story really gets around... They've really got the whole story. I've even seen magazine articles about that story. "Is it true or isn't it true?" They could have just called me and found out it wasn't true. [22]

In the same interview, Petty says that he wrote the song while living in California:

I don't remember exactly. I was living in an apartment where I was right by the freeway. And the cars would go by. In Encino, near Leon Russell's house. And I remember thinking that that sounded like the ocean to me. That was my ocean. My Malibu. Where I heard the waves crash, but it was just the cars going by. I think that must have inspired the lyric. [22]

The opening line lyric "raised on promises" echoes a line of dialogue in Francis Ford Coppola's 1963 film, Dementia 13 . Referring to another woman, the character Louise says (at minute 17), "Especially an American girl. You can tell she's been raised on promises." [23]

Single track listings

Personnel

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

with

Reception

"American Girl" is widely considered one of Petty's greatest works. The song was ranked number one on Billboard 's list of Petty's 20 greatest songs and on Rolling Stone 's list of Petty's 50 greatest songs. [25] [26] Cash Box said that it "rides along with a nice thump and an unusual, syncopated instrumental section." [27]

Charts

Tom Petty version

Original release

Chart (1977)Peak
position
UK Singles Chart40

Reissue

Chart (1994)Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 [28] 9
U.S. Cash Box Top 100 [5] 68

2017

Chart (2017)Peak
position
US Billboard Rock Digital Song Sales [29] 9

Dierks Bentley version

Chart (2024)Peak
position
Canada Country ( Billboard ) [30] 38
US Country Airplay ( Billboard ) [31] 25
US Hot Country Songs ( Billboard ) [32] 49

Certifications

RegionCertification Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI) [33]
sales since 2004 		Silver200,000‡

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers performed the song on the BBC2 television show The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1978. [34]

The song has been featured in several Hollywood films and episodes of television shows, most notably FM (1978), Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), The Sopranos (1999), Scrubs (2001), Chasing Liberty (2004), Parks and Recreation (2009), Ricki and the Flash (2015) and The Handmaid's Tale (2017). Its use in The Silence of the Lambs made the list of Top 11 Uses of Classic Rock in Cinema at UGO.

According to Petty, The Strokes have admitted to taking the riff for their 2001 single, "Last Nite", from this song. In a 2006 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Petty said "The Strokes took 'American Girl', and I saw an interview with them where they actually admitted it. That made me laugh out loud. I was like, 'OK, good for you.' It doesn't bother me." [35] The Strokes played as an opening act for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for several dates of their 2006 tour. [36]

Cover versions

Roger McGuinn of The Byrds (a major influence on Petty's music), released his own version of "American Girl" on his Thunderbyrd LP in 1977. The similarity between Petty's record and The Byrds' musical style was so strong that when his manager first played "American Girl" for him, McGuinn asked "When did I write that song?" [37]

"American Girl" has also been covered by various other artists including: The Killers, The Shins, Jason Isbell, Green Day, Elle King, Taylor Swift, Pearl Jam and Dierks Bentley.[ citation needed ]

All appearances

See also

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References

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  13. ↑ "American Girl ranked #169 on Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs List". Rolling Stone. September 15, 2021. Retrieved September 23, 2021.
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  16. ↑ Dean, Bill (June 2, 2008). "Rock pioneer Bo Diddley dies". Gainesville Sun. Archived from the original on April 3, 2012. Retrieved October 12, 2016.
  17. ↑ Wilmath, Kim. "Myths, legends and UF" The Independent Florida Alligator Online, August 15, 2007. Retrieved on February 29, 2008.
  18. ↑ Enkerud, Mark. "UF campus holds decades of legends, ghost stories" The Independent Florida Alligator August 16, 2009
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