One Beyoncé Song Appears to be a Clear Classic Rock Copy

ou sing that?’ He put a recorder in front of my mouth and I sang, ‘If I were a boy’ just like that. We ran back to the studio, and it was what I like to call a therapy session or diary entry because I’d finally decided to open my heart, and 20 minutes later, we had a song.” Interestingly, her memories of writing the song had nothing to do with a certain song by Petty.

How Tom Petty’s ‘Free Fallin” performed compared to Beyoncé’s ‘If I Were a Boy’

Whether or not “Free Fallin’” consciously inspired “If I Were a Boy,” the two songs were roughly as successful. “Free Fallin’” reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100, spending 21 weeks on the chart. The song appeared on the album Full Moon Fever. That record reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and lasted on the chart for 77 weeks. It was Petty’s biggest studio album.

Meanwhile, “If I Were a Boy” climbed to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed on the chart for 20 weeks. The track appeared on Beyoncé’s most impactful 2000s album: I Am… Sasha Fierce. The album topped the Billboard 200 for one of its 193 weeks on the chart. It remains Beyoncé’s longest-charting record.

“If I Were a Boy” might have taken some ideas from “Free Fallin’” — but it remains a beloved song in its own right. After all, it’s pretty hard to think of a single Beyoncé song that doesn’t have numerous fans.