You Got Lucky


"You Got Lucky" is the first single from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' album Long After Dark. The song peaked at #20 on the [Billboard Hot 100|Billboard Hot 100] and #1 on the Billboard Hot [Mainstream Rock Tracks|Top Tracks] chart, where it stayed for three weeks at the end of 1982. Somewhat unusually for a Petty song, guitars give up the spotlight to allow synths to carry the song's main structure.

Composition

In a November 2003 interview with Songfacts, guitarist Mike Campbell explained the song's origins:
Despite the song's popularity, it was initially rarely played live by the band, since it was not one of Petty's personal favorites; it became more of a staple since 2014.

Reception

Cash Box wrote that "smoldering synthesizer and guitar melody sets the moody scene" and that there is a "sharp edge" in Petty's voice, making him sound "earnest and convincing." Billboard called it a "midtempo ballad which has the moody intensity of 'A [Woman in Love |A Woman in Love]'."

Music video

Petty felt the video was "a real groundbreaker," and stated that he and the band wrote the treatment themselves, borrowing heavily from the post-apocalyptic look of Mad Max 2, released in 1981.
Directed by Jim Lenahan, the video begins with Tom Petty and Mike Campbell happening upon a black tent in front of the Vasquez Rocks after riding in a hovercar. They find a radio/cassette player wrapped in bubble wrap and play the tape, which begins the music of "You Got Lucky." The other band members, Howie Epstein, Benmont Tench and Stan Lynch, arrive in a sidecar racing motorcycle.
Entering the tent, they turn on a bank of cobweb-covered switches that control power for music studio equipment as well as a bank of television sets which show the videos for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' "Here Comes My Girl" and "A Woman [in Love |A Woman In Love ]." A clip from the Galactica 1980 episode "Galactica Discovers Earth, Part I" playing on one of the televisions elicits a visceral reaction from Petty, possibly explaining the cause of the destruction in the video's universe. As they explore the tent, Campbell finds a Gretsch 6120 guitar just in time to play the song's guitar solo. Epstein hits the jackpot on a slot machine, causing coins to flow over his hands. Petty overturns an Astro Invader arcade video game before they all ride away, leaving behind the cassette player.

Personnel

Year-end chart Rank
Billboard Year-End [Hot 100 singles of 1983|US Top Pop Singles ]97