Linda Ronstadt needed a little more energy on her 1977 album Simple Dreams. Most of the songs were ballads, so she and producer Peter Asher added Buddy Holly’s “It’s So Easy” to pick up the pace. Ronstadt later called it an “afterthought,” but the song went on to become a No. 5 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.
By the time Simple Dreams came around, Ronstadt and Asher had their approach down. They knew how to pick songs that played to her strengths while still letting her stretch vocally.
A big part of that was finding strong material from talented songwriters and letting Ronstadt make it her own. Simple Dreams featured songs by J.D. Souther, Eric Kaz and Warren Zevon, along with several covers that added even more variety to the album.
Ronstadt also made room for her country influences, recording the traditional songs “Old Paint” and “I Never Will Marry.” For the album’s better-known covers, she took on The Rolling Stones’ “Tumbling Dice” and Roy Orbison’s “Blue Bayou.”
She also returned to Buddy Holly. Ronstadt had already found success with Holly’s “That’ll Be the Day” on her previous album, Hasten Down the Wind, so “It’s So Easy” was a natural choice when her record needed something with a little more bounce.
Holly and producer Norman Petty wrote “It’s So Easy,” which Holly recorded with The Crickets in 1958. While the song didn’t chart when it was released, it gained a second life as a rock ’n’ roll standard after Holly’s death the following year.
That Texarkana sound baked into the original was right in Ronstadt’s wheelhouse, too. As the “Queen of Country Rock,” she had grown up listening to those influences and knew how to bring them into her version.
“It’s Texarkana,” the songstress once said. “It’s that area of the country (Texas/Arkansas). I grew up listening to that. It’s kind of country, it’s kind of rock ‘n’ roll, it’s kind of blues. It’s a little bit of all those things.”
Ronstadt’s take clearly resonated with listeners. “It’s So Easy” reached No. 5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in December 1977 and spent 18 weeks on the chart. Her version was also sharing the Top 5 with another Simple Dreams hit, “Blue Bayou,” which peaked at No. 3.
Related: 1967 Rock Song, Written by ‘Greatest Guitarist of All Time,’ Is Still Adored 59 Years Later
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