About The Song
“The Waiting” is a rock song written by Tom Petty and recorded by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for their fourth album, Hard Promises, released on May 5, 1981, by Backstreet/MCA Records. Released as the album’s lead single in April 1981, with “Nightwatchman” as the B-side, it peaked at No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 on June 27, 1981, spending 12 weeks on the chart, and reached No. 1 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for six weeks. It also hit No. 6 on the Canadian RPM Top Singles chart. The album reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200 and was certified platinum by the RIAA for one million US sales.
Recorded in early 1981 at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California, the track was produced by Jimmy Iovine and Tom Petty. It features Tom Petty on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Mike Campbell on lead guitar, Benmont Tench on organ and piano, Ron Blair on bass, and Stan Lynch on drums, with Phil Seymour on backing vocals. The song’s jangly, Byrds-inspired sound, with Campbell’s Rickenbacker guitar riff, echoes the band’s earlier hits like “American Girl,” as Petty noted in a 1999 Billboard interview. The lyrics, about the anticipation and pain of waiting for love, were written by Petty in 1980, inspired by a Janis Joplin quote, “I love being onstage and everything else is just waiting,” per Petty: The Biography. The track was recorded in a few takes, with Iovine focusing on its crisp dynamics, per Rhino’s session logs.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, formed in Gainesville, Florida, in 1976, were coming off the success of Damn the Torpedoes (No. 2, 1979) with hits like “Refugee” (No. 15, 1980). “The Waiting” was written during a dispute with MCA over album pricing, which Petty fought to keep affordable, per Stereogum. The band performed it live on their 1981 Hard Promises Tour, including a June 1981 show at LA’s Forum, and it remained a staple, played at their 2017 Hollywood Bowl concert, Petty’s last before his death on October 2, 2017, per Rolling Stone. A 1981 performance on Saturday Night Live boosted its visibility.
Covers include Linda Ronstadt’s 1982 version on Get Closer, The Killers’ 2017 live take, and a 2020 rendition by The Dirty Knobs, Campbell’s band. The song appeared in TV shows like The Simpsons (1993) and films like Jerry Maguire (1996). Its G-D-A chord progression, analyzed on Medium, and anthemic “the waiting is the hardest part” hook drove its radio success, per Genius. The music video, a performance clip with studio footage, aired on early MTV. Petty called it a “simple truth” about patience in a 2002 Mojo interview, denying a specific romantic muse. The track’s recording, per American Songwriter, showcased the band’s tightened chemistry, with Tench’s organ adding emotional depth.
Video
Lyric
Oh baby, don’t it feel like heaven right now
Don’t it feel like somethin’ from a dream
Yeah, I’ve never known nothing quite like this
Don’t it feel like tonight might never be again
Baby, we know better than to try and pretend
Honey, no one could’ve ever told me ‘bout thisI said yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah)
Yeah, yeah, yeahThe waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more yard
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest partWell, yeah, I might’ve chased a couple women around
All it ever got me was down
Then there were those that made me feel good
But never as good as I feel right now
Baby, you’re the only one that’s ever known how
To make me wanna live like I wanna live nowI said yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah)
Yeah, yeah, yeahThe waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more yard
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest partOh, don’t let it kill you, baby, don’t let it get to you
Don’t let it kill you, baby, don’t let it get to you
I’ll be your bleedin’ heart, I’ll be your cryin’ fool
Don’t let this go too far, don’t let it get to you