The performance that left Tom Petty’s label “furious”
Despite rising to prominence in the late 1970s, a period during which punk dominated the landscape of rock music, Tom Petty always leaned more towards influences of classic rock and heartland. Nevertheless, Petty always maintained a certain sense of non-conformity and a rebellious streak that dwarfed the largely performative rebellion of many punk rock groups.
Something which characterised many groups of the punk revolution, particularly The Clash, was a conflict between artists and their record labels. This was another aspect of the subversive rock scene that Petty found himself adopting, though likely not by choice. Gearing up to release his first solo album in 1989, MCA initially rejected the effort, citing a lack of tracks with hit song potential.
It was fairly surprising that MCA initially passed on Full Moon Fever, given that Petty had, up to that point, already enjoyed a hugely successful musical career with The Heartbreakers. “It’s the only time in my life that a record’s been rejected,” the songwriter revealed in a 2005 Billboard interview. Continuing, “I just thought, It’s just stupid. I made this really good record and they don’t want it.”
He added, “I just joined the [Traveling] Wilburys, and this just sat on the back burner. That was actually when I signed to Warner Bros.”
Despite this newfound relationship with Warner Bros, Petty maintained the decision to release Full Moon Fever through MCA. However, the label’s issues with the album never fully subsided. In the run-up to the release, Petty appeared on Saturday Night Live alongside The Heartbreakers as the musical guest, and his record label expected him to perform the leading single from Full Moon Fever, ‘I Won’t Back Down’.
Ever the non-conformist, Petty decided against performing the track, opting instead to play ‘Runnin’ Down a Dream’ followed by ‘Free Fallin’, a decision that infuriated MCA. Explaining the controversy, Petty revealed, “I went on, and the single at the time was ‘I Won’t Back Down,’ and I played ‘Free Fallin’’, and MCA was just furious at me. But my thinking was, ‘I Won’t Back Down’ is already a hit, let’s play something they don’t expect.’ I’m sure it helped the record later. Sometimes you just gotta do what you think is right.”
His performance on SNL certainly did help the record, which reached number three on the US album charts. Despite MCA’s dismay at the performance of ‘Free Fallin’’, the song quickly became one of Petty’s biggest chart hits, reaching number seven in the Billboard Top 100. To this day, ‘Free Fallin’’ remains potentially the most well-known effort penned by Tom Petty.
SNL’s musical performances have seen their fair share of controversy, from the hardcore punk rock outrage of Fear to Sinead O’Connor ripping up a photo of the Pope. Within the context of the show, Petty’s decision to play one hugely popular hit song rather than another is fairly vanilla…unless you were to ask an executive at MCA Records.
