Carefree Highway (song)
| "Carefree Highway" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Gordon Lightfoot | ||||
| from the album Sundown | ||||
| B-side | "Seven Island Suite" | |||
| Released | August 1974 | |||
| Genre | Folk, country rock | |||
| Length | 3:45 | |||
| Label | Reprise | |||
| Writer(s) | Gordon Lightfoot | |||
| Producer(s) | Lenny Waronker | |||
| Gordon Lightfoot singles chronology | ||||
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"Carefree Highway" is a song written by Gordon Lightfoot and was second single release from his 1974 album, Sundown. The song peaked at #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent one week at #1 on the Easy Listening chart in October 1974.[1]
The song's name comes from a section of Arizona State Route 74 in north Phoenix. Said Lightfoot, "I thought it would make a good title for a song. I wrote it down, put it in my suitcase and it stayed there for eight months."[2] The song employs "Carefree Highway" as a metaphor for the state of mind where the singer seeks escape from his ruminations over a long ago failed affair with a woman named Ann. Lightfoot has stated that Ann actually was the name of a woman Lightfoot romanced when he was age 22:[2] "It [was] one of those situations where you meet that one woman who knocks you out and then leaves you standing there and says she's on her way."[3]
Chart performance
| Chart (1974) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Kent Music Report | 74[4] |
| Canadian RPM Top Singles | 11[5] |
| Canadian RPM Adult Contemporary | 1[6] |
| Canadian RPM Country Tracks | 1[7] |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 10 |
| U.S. Billboard Easy Listening | 1 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles | 81 |
| Preceded by | Billboard Easy Listening Singles number-one single by Gordon Lightfoot October 19, 1974 |
Succeeded by "Back Home Again" by John Denver |
| Preceded by | RPM Country Tracks number-one single November 30, 1974 |
Succeeded by "Country Is" by Tom T. Hall |
References
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- ↑ http://www.lightfoot.ca/songnote.htm
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