Mary Jane's Last Dance

"Mary Jane's Last Dance"
Single by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
from the album Greatest Hits
Released	December 25, 1993 (1993-12-25)
Format	CD 7"
Recorded	July 22, 1993
Genre	Rock
Length	4:35
Label	MCA
Writer(s)	Tom Petty
Producer(s)	Rick Rubin Tom Petty Mike Campbell
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers singles chronology
"Into the Great Wide Open" (1992) "Mary Jane's Last Dance" (1993) "Something in the Air" (1993)

"Mary Jane's Last Dance" is a song written by Tom Petty and recorded by American rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It was recorded on July 22, 1993, while Petty was recording his Wildflowers album, and was produced by Rick Rubin, guitarist Mike Campbell, and Tom Petty.^[1] The sessions would prove to be the last to include drummer Stan Lynch before his eventual departure in 1994. This song was first released as part of the Greatest Hits album in 1993.^[2] It rose to #14 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming his first Billboard Top 20 hit of the 1990s,^[3] and also topped the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart for two weeks.^[4]

Content

Asked if the song was about drugs,^[5] Heartbreaker guitarist Mike Campbell said, "In the verse there is still the thing about an Indiana girl on an Indiana night, just when it gets to the chorus he had the presence of mind to give it a deeper meaning. My take on it is it can be whatever you want it to be. A lot of people think it's a drug reference, and if that's what you want to think, it very well could be, but it could also just be a goodbye love song." In the rest of the interview, Campbell said that the song was originally titled "Indiana Girl" and the first chorus "Hey, Indiana Girl, go out and find the world." He went on to say that their producer, Rick Rubin did not agree singing about "hey, Indiana Girl," so Rubin changed it a week later.^[6]

Music video

The music video, which won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video in 1994, features Petty as a morgue assistant who takes home a beautiful dead woman (played by Kim Basinger). He then tries to bring her back to life by acting as if she were alive, putting her in front of a television set and then dressing her as a bride, sitting her at the dinner table and dancing with her with no effect. A scene in the video featuring the dead woman wearing a wedding dress in a room full of wax candles is loosely based on a passage from the Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations. The plot has also similarities with the French movie Cold Moon, itself inspired by a Charles Bukowski short story ("The Copulating Mermaid of Venice"). Later, Petty is shown carrying her to a rocky shore and gently releasing her into the sea. At the end of the video, Basinger, who is seen floating in the water, opens her eyes.

During the final scenes of the video, Petty is seen carrying Basinger through a cave before placing her in the water. The cave is located at Leo Carrillo State Park, California where many movies and television shows were filmed.

Now that was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done in my life. It was classic, wasn’t it? He was a doll, and he was so sweet and asked me to do it, and both of us are extremely shy so we just said three words to each other the whole time. I’ll never forget how heavy that dress was! And I had to be dead the whole time. You know, it’s really one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life, because I had to be completely weightless to be in his arms the way I was. It won all those awards, and the kids love it—even today!

— Kim Basinger^[7]

Charts

Weekly charts

End-of-year charts

Cover versions

• In 2010, the singer/songwriter Derwood released a southern rock/reggae version of the song. It was released as a single under the album name Mary Jane's Last Dance.
• In 2005, Keller Williams released a bluegrass version, combined with the Petty song "Breakdown", entitled "Mary Jane's Last Breakdown" on the album Grass.
• In 2006, a US radio station claimed that Red Hot Chili Peppers hit single, "Dani California" had plagiarised Petty's song, "Mary Jane's Last Dance" even calling for Petty to sue the Chili Peppers. Longtime Petty and Chili Peppers producer Rick Rubin produced both songs. Petty responded by saying that he was not going to sue the Chili Peppers and felt that there was no negative intent and that a lot of rock and roll songs sound alike.^[9] The main riff in Petty's song, however, resembles the main riff in another song called "Waiting for the Sun" which was released in 1992 by The Jayhawks. The Jayhawks were the opening act for Petty's tour in 1992 and Benmont Tench played on both "Waiting for the Sun" and "Mary Jane's Last Dance".^[10]
• In 2013, Kenny Chesney released a song entitled "Pirate Flag". In manner similar to the Red Hot Chili Peppers case, many have compared Chesney's song to "Mary Jane's Last Dance", saying the songs are similar in the way the verses are sung.^[11]

References