"Wildflowers"
Single by Tom Petty
from the album Wildflowers
Released1994 (1994)
August 2020 (home recording)
Recorded1994
GenreFolk rock[1]
Length3:10
LabelWarner Bros.
Songwriter(s)Tom Petty
Producer(s)Rick Rubin
Tom Petty singles chronology
"You Don't Know How It Feels (Home Recording)"
(2020)		 "Wildflowers"
(2020)		 "Leave Virginia Alone"
(2020)

"Wildflowers" is a popular song by Tom Petty and the opening track from the album of the same name. The song became quite popular in concerts, and though it was not released as a single, it charted at #16 on the Billboard Hot Rock Songs chart,[2] at #11 on the Billboard Rock Digital Song Sales[3] and at #3 on the Billboard Lyric Find.[4] AllMusic describes it as having a simple but effective folk-based chord progression, with a sprightly, almost country-oriented rhythm.[5][6]

The song has gone on to become one of the most beloved in Petty's catalog. Petty also stated "Wildflowers" was easy to write and compose.[7] It was one of the non-singles which were included on the compilation The Best of Everything (others were "Southern Accents", "Square One", "Angel Dream" and "Dreamville").[8]

On August 20, 2020, a posthumous release of the home recorded demo version of the song was released as a digital single alongside a music video. The video contains never-before-seen footage shot by Martyn Atkins during the recording of "Wildflowers".[9] On the same day, it was officially announced that on October 16, a posthumous album titled Wildflowers & All the Rest would be released. It is a comprehensive re-release of "Wildflowers" including the home version (released as a single in August) along with the album Wildflowers and many unearthed gems and demos/home recordings.[10]

The title of the November 2020 book Somewhere You Feel Free: Tom Petty and Los Angeles comes from a lyric in the song.[11]

"Wildflowers" is also Tom Petty's fourth most streamed solo song (and seventh overall) on Spotify, even surpassing the same album's big hit "You Don't Know How it Feels".[12]

Composition

Petty described writing "Wildflowers":

I just took a deep breath and it came out. The whole song. Stream of consciousness: words, music, chords. Finished it. I mean, I just played it into a tape recorder and I played the whole song and I never played it again. I actually only spent three and a half minutes on that whole song. So I’d come back for days playing that tape, thinking there must be something wrong here because this just came too easy. And then I realized that there’s probably nothing wrong at all.[13]

References

  1. ↑ "You Wreck Me - Tom Petty, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers | Song Info | AllMusic". AllMusic.
  2. ↑ "Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers Chart History". Billboard.
  3. ↑ "Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers". Billboard.
  4. ↑ "Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers". Billboard.
  5. ↑ "Wildflowers - Tom Petty | Song Info". AllMusic.
  6. ↑ "Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Tour Statistics | setlist.fm". setlist.fm.
  7. ↑ Kelly, Sean. "Tom Petty's 'Wildflowers' Turns 25: The Stories Behind the Songs". Ultimate Classic Rock.
  8. ↑ "The Best of Everything: The Definitive Career-Spanning Hits Collection 1976-2016 - Tom Petty, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic.
  9. ↑ "Tom Petty - Wildflowers (Home Recording) [Official Music Video]". August 20, 2020. Retrieved October 1, 2020 – via YouTube.
  10. ↑ "Tom Petty's Long-Awaited Wildflowers Comprehensive Collection To Be Released". TomPetty.com. August 20, 2020. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  11. ↑ "Exclusive: Interview With Author of New Tom Petty Book". Best Classic Bands. 17 November 2020.
  12. ↑ "Tom Petty". Spotify.
  13. ↑ "Tom Petty Tells The Stories Behind His Songs". Performing Songwriter Ent., LLC. October 20, 2014.
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