Recorded by Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around was released as the first single from Nicks' debut solo album Bella Donna (1981). The track is the album's only song that was neither written nor co-written by Nicks. Written by Tom Petty and Mike Campbell as a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers song, Jimmy Iovine, who was also working for Stevie Nicks at the time, arranged for her to sing on it. Petty sang with Nicks in the chorus and bridge, while his entire band played on the song with the exception of Ron Blair, who was replaced by bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn for the recording.
As of 2017, Stop Draggin' My Heart Around remains a mainstay of Stevie Nicks's solo performances, and on July 9, 2017, Nicks performed the song together with Petty and the Heartbreakers at the British Summer Time festival at Hyde Park in London, in what turned out to be their final performance of the song together before Petty's death in October 2017.
The song peaked at No. 3 on the American Billboard Hot 100 for six consecutive weeks, (Nicks's biggest solo hit and the Heartbreakers' biggest hit as well). However, in the United Kingdom, the song only managed to peak at No. 50.