"I Won't Back Down" is a song by American rock musician Tom Petty. It was released in April 1989 as the lead single from his first solo album, Full Moon Fever. The song was co-written by Petty and Jeff Lynne, also his writing partner for the album. It reached number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Album Rock Tracks chart for five weeks, starting the album's road to multi-platinum status.
Recording
Petty recalled the recording of this song to Mojo magazine: "At the session George Harrison sang and played the guitar. I had a terrible cold that day, and George went to the store and bought a ginger root, boiled it and had me stick my head in the pot to get the ginger steam to open up my sinuses, and then I ran in and did the take."
Critical reception
Members of the Scottish pop band Win reviewed the song for the May 13, 1989 issue of British music newspaper Record Mirror. Emmanuel Shoniwa and Davy Henderson both found the title track dated. Shoniwa said: "He's definitely got old before his time, surrounding himself with his heroes" and Henderson echoed: "He seems to have willed himself into becoming a 40-years-old has-been". Jerry Smith, reviewer of British music newspaper Music Week, called this track "extremely catchy, chugging rocker" and expressed an opinion that Jeff Lynne's production "is sure to leave its mark in the build up to the release of his forthcoming LP". Music & Media found it "rootsy, very American rock with country overtones. Simple and charming with a nostalgic, early 70s production."
Content
A message of defiance against unnamed forces of difficulty and possibly oppression, the lyric is set against a mid-tempo beat:
Due to its themes, the song was played often on American radio following the September 11 attacks. Petty and the Heartbreakers played a quiet but resolute version of the song at the America: A Tribute to Heroes telethon following the 2001 attacks.
In the 2007 documentary Runnin' Down a Dream, Petty said that he felt some initial hesitation about releasing the song, given its clear and unabashed message.
Agreement with Sam Smith
In January 2015, it was revealed that an agreement had been reached whereby Petty and Jeff Lynne would be credited as co-writers of Sam Smith's song "Stay with Me" and receive 12.5% of its royalties. Petty's publishing company had contacted Smith's publisher after noticing a likeness between "Stay with Me" and "I Won't Back Down". Petty clarified that he did not believe Smith plagiarized him, saying "All my years of songwriting have shown me these things can happen. Most times you catch it before it gets out the studio door but in this case it got by. Sam's people were very understanding of our predicament and we easily came to an agreement". Smith claimed not to have heard "I Won't Back Down" before writing "Stay with Me", but acknowledged the similarity after listening to the song, calling it "a complete coincidence". Petty and Lynne were not eligible for a Grammy Award ("Stay with Me" was nominated for three awards at the 57th annual ceremony, winning two of them) as the Recording Academy considered "Stay with Me" to have been interpolated from "I Won't Back Down" by Smith, James Napier, and William Phillips, the writers of "Stay with Me"; Petty and Lynne were instead given certificates to honor their participation in the work, as is usual for writers of work which is sampled or interpolated by others.
Personnel
Tom Petty – lead vocals and backing vocals, acoustic guitar
Mike Campbell – electric guitar
George Harrison – acoustic guitar and backing vocals
Jeff Lynne – bass, synthesizer and backing vocals
Howie Epstein – backing vocals
Phil Jones – drums and drum machine
Harrison and Lynne also appear in the music video with Harrison's former Beatles bandmate, Ringo Starr, playing drums even though Starr did not play on the recording.