| Wildflowers | |
| Artist: | Tom Petty |
| Album: | Wildflowers |
| Released: | August 2020 (home recording) |
| Type: | single |
| Recorded: | 1994 |
| Genre: | Folk rock[1] |
| Label: | Warner Bros. |
| Producer: | Rick Rubin |
| Prev Title: | You Don't Know How It Feels (Home Recording) |
| Prev Year: | 2020 |
| Year: | 2020 |
| Next Title: | Leave Virginia Alone |
| Next Year: | 2020 |
"Wildflowers" is a popular song by Tom Petty and the opening track from the album of the same name. The song became quite popular in concerts, and though it was not released as a single, it charted at #16 on the Billboard Hot Rock Songs chart,[2] at #11 on the Billboard Rock Digital Song Sales[3] and at #3 on the Billboard Lyric Find.[4] AllMusic describes it as having a simple but effective folk-based chord progression, with a sprightly, almost country-oriented rhythm.[5] [6]
The song has gone on to become one of the most beloved in Petty's catalog. Petty also stated "Wildflowers" was easy to write and compose.[7] It was one of the non-singles which were included on the compilation The Best of Everything (others were "Southern Accents", "Square One", "Angel Dream" and "Dreamville").[8]
On August 20, 2020, a posthumous release of the home recorded demo version of the song was released as a digital single alongside a music video. The video contains never-before-seen footage shot by Martyn Atkins during the recording of "Wildflowers".[9] On the same day, it was officially announced that on October 16, a posthumous album titled Wildflowers & All the Rest would be released. It is a comprehensive re-release of "Wildflowers" including the home version (released as a single in August) along with the album Wildflowers and many unearthed gems and demos/home recordings.[10]
The title of the November 2020 book Somewhere You Feel Free: Tom Petty and Los Angeles comes from a lyric in the song.[11]
"Wildflowers" is also Tom Petty's fourth most streamed solo song (and seventh overall) on Spotify, even surpassing the same album's big hit "You Don't Know How it Feels".[12]
Petty described writing "Wildflowers":