Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Don't Come Around Here No More
1985 · Directed by Jeff Stein
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Best comments
1.“Tom Petty is to be commended. He has done the impossible. He has actually succeeded in making Alice in Wonderland WEIRDER.”
More comments
- 2.“This video won Best Special Effects at the MTV awards, and Tom's acceptance speech was along the lines of 'This video contained no special effects – thank you.'”
- 3.“I was watching this with my grandma as a kid. My dad walks in, sees Alice being served up as a cake and says, 'Don't watch that with your grandma.' And she said, 'Relax, honey... it's just Tom Petty.'”
The story
Alice in Wonderland, if Wonderland ran on sitar and bad intentions. Director Jeff Stein opens on Dave Stewart of Eurythmics, who co-wrote the song, as the caterpillar on a mushroom with a hookah, playing sitar. Tom Petty is the Mad Hatter. Louise "Wish" Foley is Alice. She eats a cake Stewart hands her and tumbles into a black-and-white patterned world straight out of the Mad Tea Party. After a run of strange events, Alice herself is turned into a cake, and the tea party guests eat her. Petty finishes the job, burps softly and dabs his mouth with a napkin. The song just stops, 29 seconds early.
They shot it in two days at S.I.R. Studios in Hollywood. The giant teacup was an above-ground kiddie pool, the giant donut was an inner tube and the sugar cubes were floral foam painted white. There was one custom cake from an LA bakery and no backup. A piglet escaped mid-shoot and took about 45 minutes to catch. Foley was the second of roughly 50 actresses to audition, and Stein says her scream helped win her the part.
A parents group accused the video of promoting cannibalism, and Stein says the uproar helped push Tipper Gore to launch the Parents Music Resource Center. MTV aired it anyway, but later cut the burp until Stein called and got it put back. It won Best Special Effects at the 1985 MTV Video Music Awards and was up for Video of the Year. The song, lead single from Southern Accents, reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. Petty's top hat now sits in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The cake did not make it.
