100 Greatest Songs of the 70’s #41 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – American Girl

Released: 1976

Tom Petty once said rock n’ roll was the ultimate road trip companion “I think the music is almost designed for America, because to me American music was all about listening to music in the car.”

Born in Gainesville in 1950, a starry eyed young man was first introduced to the new sound of sin during a visit to see Elvis film-making in a local town. And when the British musical invasion made landfall two years later it provided all the motivation required and barely a teenager, he formed a band of his own he named The Sundowners.

Years of bump and grind for little reward eventually prompted a move to LA in the mid-70’s and despite at first looking to pursue a solo career, Petty fell in with the initial line up of the Heartbreakers, who released their self titled debut album in 1976. Perhaps surprisingly given it was the height of punk, the band found themselves warmly welcomed in Britain, American Girl becoming a minor UK hit a year after it had first surfaced.

Written whilst the singer listened to the somehow comforting hum of freeway traffic outside his apartment window, it was a song that rolled like wheels on blacktop, hopes and dreams in every pristine guitar chord – recording even took place on the 4th of July. With it a writer at the start of a career mapping it’s dream had created the ultimate song for his home nation’s ultimate past time.