Stop Draggin' My Heart Around

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"Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" was a song that I had written the music and Tom had written the words. The Heartbreakers had recorded a version of it with Jimmy Iovine, and Jimmy being the entrepreneur that he was, he was working with Stevie, and I guess he asked Tom if she could try it, and it just developed from there. We cut the track as a Heartbreakers record and when she decided to do it we used that track and she came in and sang over it. It became a duet. It's basically all the Heartbreakers on that record. [4]

The lyrics are about a woman who feels weighed down by relationships and wants to part despite a strong sentimental attachment to her lover. The melody is described by AllMusic as "dark and sinister". [5] Apart from the intro before the first verse and a solo following the second verse (where there is some fairly heavy riffing), however, the guitar sound is laid-back in typical Heartbreakers style. The song was originally recorded for Petty's album Hard Promises , but the producers felt the song came from a female point of view and it was left unreleased until it was agreed to be put on the Bella Donna album instead. A demo version of the song, recorded without Nicks, was eventually released on Petty's boxed set Playback (1995).

Billboard called it a "punchy uptempo piece of rock." [6] Record World said that "Nicks' uncompromising vocal pairs perfectly with Petty." [7]

Personnel

Band

Additional musicians

Charts

"Stop Draggin' My Heart Around"
Stop Draggin' My Heart Around cover.jpg
Single by Stevie Nicks & Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
from the album Bella Donna
B-side "Kind of Woman"
ReleasedJuly 8, 1981
Recorded1981
Genre Blues rock
Length4:03
Label Modern
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
Stevie Nicks singles chronology
"Stop Draggin' My Heart Around"
(1981)
"Leather and Lace"
(1981)
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers singles chronology
"A Woman in Love (It's Not Me)"
(1981)
"Stop Draggin' My Heart Around"
(1981)
"You Got Lucky"
(1982)

Cover versions

The song was parodied by "Weird Al" Yankovic as "Stop Draggin' My Car Around" on his debut album "Weird Al" Yankovic (1983).

Jimmy Fallon and Stevie Nicks performed the song in a humorous recreation of the 1981 music video on The Tonight Show on April 9, 2014. [19]

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