American Girl (song)

"American Girl"
Single by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
from the album Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
A-side	American Girl
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	Shelter
Writer(s)	Tom Petty
Producer	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., 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.

Music

"American Girl" uses standard rock instrumentation of electric guitars, electric bass, drums, and keyboards. The tempo is fast and "urgent", and is built on a repeated jangling guitar riff based on a "Bo Diddley beat".

As described in Rolling Stone, "The supercharged riff set the template for decades of Petty hits, but it was also a homage to the Byrds: Petty and Mike Campbell's twin guitars mirrored Roger McGuinn's 12-string, infusing the folk-rock sounds of the Sixties with New Wave energy."

Lyrics and rumors

Due to lyrics mentioning cars rolling by "out on 441" and a desperate girl on a balcony, the song was rumored to have been written about a girl who committed suicide by jumping from the Beaty Towers residence hall at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where Tom Petty grew up. (U.S Route 441 runs along the university campus right beside Beaty Towers.)

Beaty Towers residence hall on the University of Florida campus

Carl Van Ness, the University of Florida's official historian, says that a student may have committed suicide by jumping from one of the Beaty Towers between 1967, when the facility opened, and the early 1970s, when Tom Petty left Gainesville for California. However, the residence hall does not have balconies.

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.

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.

The opening lines, "Well, she was an American Girl / raised on promises" may have been influenced by a similar line from Francis Ford Coppola's directorial debut, Dementia 13, a 1963 horror flick set in Ireland in which the character Louise Haloran, played by Luana Anders, has the line, "The mood around this place isn't good for her. Especially an American girl. You can tell she's been raised on promises."

Single track listings

• "American Girl" b/w "Fooled Again (I Don't Like It)"
  Shelter 62007 (US)
• "American Girl" b/w "The Wild One, Forever"
  Shelter WIP6377 (UK)
• "American Girl" b/w "Luna" (Live) *
  Shelter WIP6403 (UK)
  * taken from The Official Live Bootleg

Charts

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

Usage in recent media

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) and Chasing Liberty (2004). 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 recently featured on the "NBC" comedy, "Parks and Recreation", at the end of Season 3's "Harvest Festival" episode.

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

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, Tom 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". The Strokes played as an opening act for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for several dates of their 2006 tour.

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?".

"American Girl" has also been covered by the following artists: Cindy Alexander, Angel City Outcasts, Gin Blossoms, Melora Creager, Cruiserweight, Dance Hall Crashers, Def Leppard, Val Emmich, Everclear, The Gaslight Anthem, Goo Goo Dolls, Humble Gods, Ill Repute, Jack's Mannequin, Fun., Matchbox 20, Of Montreal, Pearl Jam, Rasputina, Saints of the Underground, Six Going On Seven, Sugarland, Sum 41, Taking Back Sunday, Taylor Swift, Tokyo Police Club, and Matthew Sweet.

All appearances

• Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
• Pack up the Plantation: Live!
• Greatest Hits
• Playback
• Anthology: Through the Years
• Runnin' Down a Dream
• The Live Anthology
• Mojo Tour 2010 (Live Version)

Personnel

• Tom Petty - rhythm guitar (played in unison with Campbell), lead vocals
• Mike Campbell - lead guitar, rhythm guitar (played in unison with Petty)
• Benmont Tench - piano, Hammond organ
• Ron Blair - bass guitar
• Stan Lynch - drums
• Phil Seymour - backing vocals
• Dwight Twilley - backing vocals

See also

• 1977 in music