“Jeff said, ‘That’s a really good riff but there’s one chord too many.’ So I cut it back a chord and then – just to amuse Jeff, honestly – I sang that first verse”: How Tom Petty created his most famous song – with a little help from Jeff Lynne

Tom Petty.

Some of the greatest anthems of all-time have been written using just a handful of chords. One such song is Tom Petty’s classic 1989 hit Free Fallin’ – although it’s not quite as simple as it appears at surface level.

Many have thought, for example, that its main guitar part – performed by Petty on a 12-string acoustic with a capo on the third fret – is really only built around one D shape chord, with the note on the highest string changing to create movement.