Synopsis

In a surreal take on Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, Alice wanders into a strange tea party hosted by Tom Petty as the Mad Hatter. Dave Stewart appears as a hookah-smoking caterpillar, while the Heartbreakers serve as eccentric party guests. Alice is repeatedly shrunk, enlarged, and disoriented as the setting shifts between playful fantasy and unsettling nightmare. The story reaches its bizarre conclusion when Alice is transformed into a cake, sliced up, and eaten by the partygoers before Petty swallows the final piece.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was released in 1985 to promote the single from the album "Southern Accents."

• The Wonderland concept was suggested by Dave Stewart, who co-wrote and co-produced the song with Tom Petty. Stewart also played the caterpillar and contributed electric sitar to the recording.

• Alice was played by Louise "Wish" Foley, who was then connected to Heartbreakers drummer Stan Lynch. She later appeared in another Petty-related video, "Make It Better (Forget About Me)," which also used Wonderland imagery.

• The clip received the MTV Video Music Award for Best Special Effects in 1985. It was also nominated for Video of the Year, Best Concept Video, Best Direction, and Viewer's Choice.

• The transformation of Alice into a cake became one of the most recognizable and disturbing images of the early MTV era. The sequence drew criticism from parents' groups, including the Parents Music Resource Center.

• The song's title reportedly came from a remark Stevie Nicks made to Joe Walsh during a tense encounter at a party. That real-life breakup story was separate from the video's Wonderland narrative, which gave the song a much more elaborate visual identity.

• The finished video cuts off the last portion of the closing guitar solo heard on the album version, ending instead with Petty's character swallowing Alice and reacting with a satisfied burp.