Mary Jane's Last Dance
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"Mary Jane's Last Dance" is a song by Tom Petty. It was recorded while Petty was recording his Wildflowers album, and was produced by Rick Rubin. This song was first released as part of the Greatest Hits album in 1993. [1] It rose to #14 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming his first Billboard Top 20 hit of the 1990s. [2]
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[edit] Video
The video, which won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video in 1994, features Petty as a morgue assistant who takes home the corpse of Kim Basinger for a dinner date. A part of the video where the corpse is wearing a wedding dress in a room full of wax candles is loosely based on a passage from Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations".
[edit] Lyrics
Asked if the song was about drugs, Heartbreaker guitarist Mike Campbell said, "My take on it is it can be whatever you want it to be. A lot of people think it's a drug reference, and if that's what you want to think, it very well could be, but it could also just be a goodbye love song."
[edit] Controversy
On 17 May 2006, Dan Gaffney of WGMD in Delaware alleged that the Red Hot Chili Peppers had in fact used exactly the same chord progressions in their new hit single "Dani California" from the album Stadium Arcadium, which was also produced by Rick Rubin.[citation needed] There is a slight pitch shift, and in parts the lyrics (notably, the use of "Indiana" in both songs) mirror each other.[citation needed] The chord progression is in fact slightly different, although similar rhythmic patterns of the two riffs add to the comparison. Initially, Rolling Stone reported that Petty was outraged about the alleged theft. However, Petty denied rumors that he planned to sue over the song and said "The truth is, I seriously doubt that there is any negative intent there. And a lot of rock & roll songs sound alike."[3]
Petty's song has also endured some criticism for borrowing the same progression from a Jayhawks song called "Waiting For The Sun".[citation needed] The problem with this criticism is it is historically inaccurate.[citation needed] Tom Petty, in fact composed "Mary Jane's Last Dance" in 1989 during the sessions for his Full Moon Fever album.[citation needed] The song was originally called "Indiana Girl" and featured different lyrics but the familiar chord structure was already in place.[4] Footage of this session can be viewed in several documentaries on the band.[citation needed]
[edit] Cover Versions
- In 2005, Keller Williams released a bluegrass version entitled Mary Jane's Last Breakdown on the album Grass.
