Song · Tom Waits
“I Don't Wanna Grow Up” by Tom Waits
From the album Bone Machine (1992)
“I Don't Wanna Grow Up” by Tom Waits appears on 2 radio countdowns from 2 stations between 2020 and 2023. It was first released in 1992 on the album Bone Machine. Its best result is #591 on The Current's 893 Essential Songs of the '90s. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #6,375 indie & aaa song of all time.
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Video from YouTube (Tom Waits). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube
"I Don't Wanna Grow Up" comes off Bone Machine, the 1992 Island album that brought Tom Waits back to the studio five years after Franks Wild Years, and he wrote it with Kathleen Brennan, who also plays percussion on it. Waits sings, plays guitar and produced it himself, with Larry Taylor on double bass; Biff Dawes recorded and mixed it and Shawn Morris engineered.
The album was made in a bare cellar room at Prairie Sun Recording, nothing but a cement floor and a water heater by Waits's account, and it's rough, stripped to the bone and heavy on percussion, with death and decay hanging over the lyrics. Jesse Dylan and Jim Jarmusch, who shot the "Goin' Out West" clip, directed this one's video too.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 1381 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2023 | 591 | The Current | The Current's 893 Essential Songs of the '90s | 893 |
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