You’ll have seen previously that Tom Petty’s ‘Wildflowers & All the Rest’ collection will be out soon, but before that the singer’s estate has shared one of the five previously unreleased tracks from the ‘All the Rest’ half of the reissue – not only that but ‘Leave Virginia Alone’ has a video for it too, starring Tiny Pretty Things’ Casimere Jollette, which was co-directed by Mark Seliger and Tom’s daughter Adria Petty and filmed in Connecticut and Seliger’s studio in New York. It’s among the earliest songs in the collection, Petty originally penning it in January 1993, nearly two years before Wildflowers’ release.
“We were very resourceful about trying to create a character that could be assigned to anyone,” Adria Petty told Sirius XM: “That’s why Virginia in this video is very mysterious but she has her little glimpses of characters. We really worked to cast someone authentic — that felt like they were really feeling their feelings and someone that you could believe. We really wanted the song to do the heavy lifting in this video, and sort of step out of the way and just give it something to breathe with. the one idea that kept coming back to both of us is that we really want Tom to be narrating the story. We really want to hear his voice as he runs you through this journey that this woman is having.”
‘Leave Virginia Alone’ was first recorded by Rod Stewart in 1995, reaching number one in Canada.
