The "urban myth" surrounding Tom Petty song 'American Girl'

 

Quite often, myths are preferable to believe in comparison to the harsh reality of the truth. If gossip is allowed to spread like wildfire, it can dangerously become a popular belief. A fine example of this is the wild fabricated tale regarding the writing of Tom Petty‘s classic song, ‘American Girl’, which the songwriter himself labelled as “a huge urban myth”.

According to legend, a student at the University of Florida tragically died by suicide after jumping from the Beaty Towers building in Gainesville, which inspired Petty to write ‘American Girl’. The details of the case remain non-existent, but fans came to this conclusion after they felt the musician had left a series of clues hidden within the track.

In ‘American Girl’, Petty sings about how “cars roll by out on 441”, which refers to US Route 441, situated near Beatty Towers. Additionally, the towers opened in 1967, a time when the singer-songwriter lived in Gainesville. Despite no records existing of a real-life event that matches the alleged tale, the story continued to circulate through Florida for decades. In the track, Petty also sings: “Well, it was kind of cold that night, She stood alone on her balcony, Yeah, she could hear the cars roll by, Out on 441, Like waves crashin’ on the beach”. Additionally, ‘American Girl’ features the lines, “If she had to die tryin’, She had one little promise, She was gonna keep”.

Another major problem with this story is that the rooms in Beatty Towers don’t actually feature a balcony, the decisive proof that ‘American Girl’ isn’t about a literal tale. However, that didn’t stop small talk in the local area, and it became a disturbing source of hometown pride for some in Gainesville.

Thankfully, Petty finally put the rumours to bed in 2005. In the book, Conversations With Tom Petty, he said: “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.”

Petty continued: “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.”

Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell also dispelled the Floridian myth and told SongFacts: “We used to have people come up to us and tell us they thought it was about suicide because of the one line about ‘If she had to die,’ but what they didn’t get was, the whole line is, ‘If she had to die trying.’ Some people take it literally and out of context. To me, it’s just a really beautiful love song.”

Despite the strong words of those who crafted ‘American Girl,’ many people continue to believe this false tale which doesn’t have an ounce of truth behind it, and this myth will likely live on for many more years.