ROCK MOMENT - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
ROCK MOMENT – Tom Petty ‘Mary Jane’s Last Dance’
Sometimes, the songs that almost slip away end up becoming the biggest hits. That’s exactly what happened with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ ‘Mary Jane’s Last Dance,‘ a track that wasn’t even meant to see the light of day when it was first recorded.
Back in 1991, during the sessions for Into the Great Wide Open with producer Jeff Lynne, Petty and the band worked up a tune that had promise but didn’t quite fit the record. It got shelved—just another leftover. But two years later, while putting together their Greatest Hits album, new producer Rick Rubin urged Petty to dust it off. Rubin heard something special, and the band went back into the studio to finish it.
That’s when magic struck. Mike Campbell came up with one of his most unforgettable riffs, Benmont Tench added swirling organ textures, and drummer Stan Lynch—on one of his final recordings with the Heartbreakers—locked into a swampy groove. Petty’s vocal gave the lyrics a mysterious edge. Was “Mary Jane” a lost lover? A metaphor for marijuana? A farewell to youth? Petty never confirmed, telling fans it could be whatever they wanted it to be.
Then came the music video that everybody remembers. Directed by Keir McFarlane and starring Kim Basinger as a beautiful corpse, the video stirred up controversy for its morbid storyline. Petty himself admitted he was nervous about it, but Basinger’s performance gave it an eerie beauty. MTV couldn’t stop playing it, and the song shot up the charts, peaking at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and winning an MTV Video Music Award.
Critics praised it as proof that Petty wasn’t just riding on past glories—he was still writing songs that could stand tall next to his classics. And fans quickly made it a favorite, with ‘Mary Jane’s Last Dance‘ becoming a staple of Heartbreakers concerts for the rest of Petty’s career. Usually saved for the encore, it was the kind of song that brought arenas to their feet, its hypnotic riff echoing long after the band left the stage.
In the end, a song that started as an outtake became one of Tom Petty’s defining tracks. ‘Mary Jane’s Last Dance‘ wasn’t just another hit—it was a reminder that Petty could still surprise us, even after decades of timeless music.
