Stevie Nicks & Tom Petty • Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around
Stop Draggin' My Heart Around is one of my favorite records of the rock era. Though it was initially released by Stevie Nicks, it is of course a duet with Tom Petty, and is clearly one of the most dynamic duets ever.
The record had the good fortune of being released around the time MTV went on the air. They didn't have many videos at the time, so this got a lot of airplay. It introduced a younger audience to Nicks and Petty. The video (see YouTube video below) was the 25th video to be played on MTV's launch date on August 1, 1981.
The record is primarily sung by Stevie Nicks, the first single from her debut solo album Bella Donna (1981) (previously an exclusive member of Fleetwood Mac). The track is the album's only song that was neither written nor co-written by Nicks. Written by Tom Petty and Mike Campbell as a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers song, Jimmy Iovine, who was also working for Stevie Nicks at the time, arranged for her to sing on it. Petty sang with Nicks in the chorus and bridge, while most of his band played on the song.
The song peaked at # 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 for six consecutive weeks, (Nicks's biggest solo hit and the Heartbreakers biggest hit as well).
Stop Draggin' My Heart Around on Spotify:
The album itself was released on July 27, 1981, the album reached number one on the Billboard 200 album chart in September of that year. Bella Donna was awarded platinum status by the RIAA on October 7, 1981, less than three months after its release, and in 1990 was certified quadruple-platinum for four million copies shipped. Bella Donna spent nearly three years on the Billboard 200 from July 1981 to June 1984.
Petty met Nicks while he was recording his group's album Damn The Torpedoes (Source: songfacts.com). She asked him half-jokingly if he could write her a song that she could record for her first solo album. Petty didn't take her request seriously at first, but Nicks reiterated her request a year later as Petty was putting together his Hard Promises album. Petty wrote a ballad called Insider at his home, played it to the Heartbreakers (to their approval), recorded a demo with his band, and sent the demo to Nicks. After listening to the demo of Insider, Nicks visited Petty at his studio, taped the song with Petty and the Heartbreakers, then gave the tape to Petty, saying, "You love this so much... YOU take the song." He did, and included it on Hard Promises.
Shortly after Insider was finished, Petty and company recorded a song that he and guitarist Mike Campbell composed about a year earlier — Stop Draggin' My Heart Around - and sent that demo to Nicks' producer, Jimmy Iovine. She loved it, saying, "That's what I wanted all along.”
Nicks and Petty ended up doing it as a duet.
And the rest is music history.
Take a look at this great video:
(the 25th video to be played on MTV's launch date on August 1, 1981)
Here is the live performance from the Summer of 1981 of Stop Draggin' My Heart Around performed by Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty:
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Full Lyrics
Stop Dragging My Heart Around
Songwriters: Tom Petty / Mike Campbell
Baby, you'll come knockin' on my front door
Same old line you used to use before
And I said yeah, well, what am I supposed to do?
I didn't know what I was gettin' into
So you've had a little trouble in town
Now, you're keepin' some demon down
Stop draggin' my, stop draggin' my
Stop draggin' my heart around
It's hard to think about what you've wanted
It's hard to think about what you've lost
This doesn't have to be the big "get even"
This doesn't have to be anything at all
I know you really wanna tell me goodbye
I know you really wanna be your own girl
Baby, you could never look me in the eye
Yeah, you buckle with the weight of the words
Stop draggin' my, stop draggin' my
Stop draggin' my heart around
There's people runnin' 'round loose in the world
Ain't got nothin' better to do
Make a meal of some bright-eyed kid
You need someone lookin' after you
I know you really wanna tell me goodbye
I know you really wanna be your own girl
Baby, you could never look me in the eye
Yeah, you buckle with the weight of the words
Stop draggin' my, stop draggin' my
Stop draggin' my heart around
Stop draggin' my heart around
Stop draggin' my heart around (hey-hey-hey-hey)
Stop draggin' my heart around (hey-hey-hey-hey)
Stop draggin' my heart around
