June 28, 2024      —–     Chart #252

Hello Music Friends,

Hey folks, welcome to another edition of Chart of the Week. Going back to high school with today’s chart. “Easy” is a song by American band Commodores from their fifth studio album, Commodores (1977), released on the Motown label. Group member Lionel Richie wrote “Easy” with the intention of it becoming another crossover hit for the group given the success of a previous single, “Just to Be Close to You“, which spent two weeks at number one on the US Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart (now known as the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart) and peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1977.

Released in March 1977, “Easy” reached number one on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart (for a single week, on July 16) and number four on the Billboard Hot 100. The success of “Easy” paved the way for similar Richie-composed hit ballads such as “Three Times a Lady” and “Still”, and also for Richie’s later solo hits.

Written by Commodores lead singer Lionel Richie, the song is a slow ballad expressing a man’s relief as a relationship ends. Rather than being depressed about the break-up, he states that he is instead “easy like Sunday morning”—something that Richie described as evocative of “small Southern towns that die at 11:30pm” on a Saturday night, such as his hometown Tuskegee, Alabama. The song is written in the key of A♭ major and modulates up a semitone to A major.

The Commodores, are an American funk and soul group. The group’s most successful period was in the late 1970s and early 1980s when Lionel Richie was the co-lead singer. The members of the group met as mostly freshmen at Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in 1968, and signed with Motown in November 1972, having first caught the public eye opening for the Jackson 5 while on tour.

The band’s biggest hit singles are ballads such as “Easy”, “Three Times a Lady”, and “Nightshift”; and funk-influenced dance songs, including “Brick House”, “Fancy Dancer”, “Lady (You Bring Me Up)”, and “Too Hot ta Trot”.

Lionel Richie performs Easy at his induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022:  https://youtu.be/0VofYhAqnQo?si=KR6mRjr-v-mCzbXt

Fans, I usually lean toward rock and country in my weekly selections, but there is room for soul, funk and popular ballads too. This song received lots of air play and I’ll bet you slow danced to this one a time or two in your day. For you guitar strummers, this song may be a challenge. Give it a try, I think you’ll have fun.

Keep Rockin’,

Stan Bradshaw