Wishing Well – Free | Top 40 Chart Performance, Story and Song Meaning

Chart Performance: DNC

Story Behind The Song By Ed Osborne

From the outside, everything looked fine for Free after its stunning All Right Now single success and Fire And Water album triumph. Yet, internally, the band was coming apart. In fact, a near-split almost destroyed Free during the recording of its second album.

Highway hit the bins just months after Fire And Water, and promptly bombed. Free Live! fared a bit better, but by then the group had broken up. Rodgers and Fraser temporarily formed new bands, then reunited in January of 1972 with Kossoff and Kirke for another go.

Kossoff’s ever-worsening drug problems doomed the reunion from the start. They stumbled through the sessions for Free At Last, then Fraser bailed for good. Kossoff showed up on only half of the Heartbreaker tracks, including Wishing Well, Rodgers’ plea for his guitarist to get himself together.

Sadly, he didn’t. On February 17th, 1973 Free played its last gig. Rodgers and Kirke went on to form Bad Company. Kossoff died on March 19, 1976.

This content and all Song Meaning articles were created and written by Top 40 Contributing Editor Ed Osborne. © 2024 Ed Osborne. All Rights Reserved. In addition to these song meaning articles, Ed has written our “Year in Music 1960s-1990s” articles.

Produced by:

  • FreeAndy Johns

Lyrics Written by:

  • Paul Rodgers
  • Simon Kirke
  • Tetsu Yamauchi
  • John Bundrick
  • Paul Kossoff

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Ed Osborne

Hi. I got my first record at age two and never looked back, spending a decades-long career in radio and the music business. Even after years of reading about and listening to all types of music, I am still fascinated by it. Apart from that, I’m endlessly intrigued by art, nature, and the inner lives of people (and dogs).