| "I'm Easy" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Keith Carradine | ||||
| B-side | "200 Years (Henry Gibson)" | |||
| Released | May 1976 | |||
| Genre | Folk pop | |||
| Length | 2:59 | |||
| Label | ABC | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Keith Carradine | |||
| Producer(s) | Richard Baskin | |||
| Keith Carradine singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"I'm Easy" is an Academy Award-winning song written and performed by Keith Carradine for the 1975 movie Nashville . [1] Carradine recorded a slightly faster version that became a popular music hit in 1976 in the United States.
The song is a ballad about a lover who is guileless and in awe of the object of his love. The film juxtaposes these lyrics by presenting the song in the context of Tom, a character played by Carradine, who is a manipulative womanizer. In the film, when Tom performs the song at the Exit/In (a real-life Nashville music club where the scene was shot), he dedicates it to "a special someone". Several women in the audience, past, recent and future conquests, believe the song has been written for them.
"I'm Easy" was initially released as an acoustic guitar ballad played by guitarist Ben Benay, with a cello accompaniment. It was re-recorded by Carradine at a slightly higher tempo with the addition of percussion, keyboards and synthesizer accompaniment on Asylum Records. The album was issued late fall 1976.
The song is often mistakenly associated with Jim Croce due to the similarity of Carradine's voice, vocal style and guitar playing. Croce had died in a plane crash two years before Nashville was released.
"I'm Easy" won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Golden Globe for Best Original Song (Motion Picture). The song peaked at #17 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, number 10 on the Cash Box Top 100, and spent one week atop the adult contemporary chart. [2] "I'm Easy" was Carradine's only recording to reach the Top 40, and took the #72 slot on the year-end countdown. In 2004 it finished at #81 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of the top tunes in American cinema.
| Chart (1975/1976) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Canadian RPM Adult Contemporary [3] | 36 |
| Canadian RPM Top 100 [4] | 22 |
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