American Girl (Tom Petty song)

"American Girl"
Single by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
from the album Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
B-side
  • "Fooled Again (I Don't Like It)" (US)
  • "Luna" (live) (UK)
Released February 1977
Format 7"
Recorded Shelter Studios, Hollywood
July 4, 1976
Genre Rock
Length 3:35
Label
Writer(s) Tom Petty
Producer(s) Denny Cordell
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers singles chronology
"Breakdown"
(1976)		 "American Girl"
(1977)		 "I Need to Know"
(1978)

"American Girl" is the second single from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' self-titled debut album. The single did not chart in the U.S. (until it was re-released in 1994, it only managed to peak at nine in Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles though), but in the UK it peaked at #40 the week ending August 27, 1977. The song was ranked 76th on the list of "The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time" by Rolling Stone.[1]

Music

"American Girl" uses standard rock instrumentation of electric guitars (Petty and Campbell), electric bass (Blair), drums (Lynch), and keyboards (Tench). The tempo is fast and "urgent",[2] and is built on a repeated jangling guitar riff based on a "Bo Diddley beat".[3]

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."[1]

Beaty Towers on the University of Florida campus

Lyrics and rumors

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 of them involved a jump from Beaty Towers.[4] University of Florida spokesman Steve Orlando said that no one has committed suicide by jumping off Beaty Towers,[5] which would be a difficult endeavor since the dorm rooms have narrow windows and no balconies.[6][7][8][8]

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."[9]

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."[9]

The lyric "raised on promises" appears to have come from a line of dialogue in Francis Ford Coppola's 1963 film, Dementia 13. Referring to another woman, the character Louise says (at minute 22), "Especially an American girl. You can tell she's been raised on promises."

Single track listings

Charts

Chart (1977) Peak
position
UK Singles Chart 36
Chart (1994) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 9

Use in media

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers performed the song on the BBC2 television show The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1978.[10]

The song has been featured in several Hollywood films, most notably FM (1978), Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Chasing Liberty (2004) and "Ricki and the Flash" (2015). Its use in The Silence of the Lambs made the list of Top 11 Uses of Classic Rock in Cinema at UGO.

It was featured in the TV series Scrubs, in a scene of an episode titled "My Own American Girl", which was first aired on October 2, 2003. It was also featured in The Sopranos, in season 6 episode "Join the Club".

The song was featured on the NBC comedy, Parks and Recreation, at the end of Season 3's "Harvest Festival" episode.

It is a playable song in the video game Guitar Hero 5.

Fun Lovin' Criminals sampled the song for their 1998 song "Big Night Out", from the album 100% Colombian.[11]

According to Tom 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."[12] The Strokes played as an opening act for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for several dates of their 2006 tour.[13]

The song was frequently played during Hillary Clinton rallies or town hall meetings during the 2008 Democratic Primaries.

Michele Bachmann used "American Girl" to kick off her 2011 Presidential campaign in Iowa, prompting Petty to demand that she not use his song.[14]


"American Girl" was featured in Ugly Betty Season 3 Episode 1. Near ending scene, Betty dance to this song in her new apartment after she talked to the boy next door.

Cover versions

Roger McGuinn of The Byrds (a major influence on Petty's music), released his own version of "American Girl" a few months after the original. 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?"[15]

"American Girl" has also been covered by the following artists: Elle King, Dan Hubbard, Cindy Alexander, Angel City Outcasts, Gin Blossoms, Melora Creager, Cruiserweight, Dance Hall Crashers, Def Leppard (from Yeah! 2006), Val Emmich, Everclear, Fun, The Gaslight Anthem, Goo Goo Dolls, Humble Gods, Ill Repute, Jack's Mannequin, Larkin Poe, Matchbox 20, Matthew Sweet, Of Montreal, Pearl Jam, Rasputina, Saints of the Underground, Six Going On Seven, Smith Westerns, Sugarland, Sum 41 (2011), Taking Back Sunday, Taylor Swift, The Hush Sound, Tokyo Police Club, Twin Shadow and Val Emmich.

All appearances

Personnel

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time". Rolling Stone. June 12, 2008. Retrieved January 25, 2011
  2. ↑ Tom Petty and Tom Frank: Two Geniuses of Pop Culture | The New York Observer
  3. ↑ Rock pioneer Bo Diddley dies | Gainesville.com
  4. ↑ Wilmath, Kim. "Myths, legends and UF" The Independent Florida Alligator Online, August 15, 2007. Retrieved on February 29, 2008.
  5. ↑ Enkerud, Mark. "UF campus holds decades of legends, ghost stories" The Independent Florida Alligator August 16, 2009
  6. ↑ http://www.jou.ufl.edu/pubs/onb/S02/rock2.htm
  7. ↑ http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/americangirl.asp
  8. 1 2 http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/music/running-down-a-dream-tracking-tom-pettys-florida-roots-in-gainesville-6415455
  9. 1 2 Zollo, Paul. Conversations with Tom Petty (2005) p.195-196
  10. ↑ The Old Grey Whistle Test (DVD). Warner Home Video. 2003.
  11. ↑ "WhoSampled: Fun Lovin' Criminals' Big Night Out sample of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' American Girl"
  12. ↑ "Tom Petty News on Yahoo! Music". Ca.music.yahoo.com. Archived from the original on July 18, 2011. Retrieved August 13, 2011.
  13. ↑ MTV News, July 7, 2006
  14. ↑ Petty takes on Bachmann over 'American Girl'" - Yahoo! News
  15. ↑ "McGuinn Takes It Easy As Comeback Takes Off" Austin American-Statesman May 13, 1991: B8
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