American Girl
Sorry, urban legend devotees. Tom Petty’s 1977 classic was not inspired by the suicide of a University of Florida student. Despite the fact that the song’s second line mentions a girl standing “alone on her balcony” and “could hear the cars roll by out on 441” (a highway that runs near the Gainesville campus), Petty repeatedly dismissed the misunderstanding more than once.
American Girl
In The Air Tonight
Phil Collins’ debut solo hit wasn’t written about the singer’s run-in with a man who refused point-blank to assist a drowning swimmer in Round Two of Song Meanings Being Twisted By Urban Legends. And, according to Collins, the individual was not invited to sit in the front row of the concert and be verbally abused by “In the Air Tonight.” Alternatively, the song is really a tense, introspective insight into Collins’ divorce from his first wife.
In The Air Tonight