Easy

Commodores lead singer Lionel Richie wrote this song, which became a crossover hit for the band, bringing them into pop and adult contemporary territory when they were previously pure funk. This led to more soft hits for the band like "Still" and "Three Times A Lady." When Richie went solo in 1981, he became a soft rock superstar with similar songs.

In this song, Richie sings about giving up on a relationship because it's bringing him down. He feels liberated after the breakup and has a sense of calm that's "easy like Sunday morning." The song is often misinterpreted as a sweet love song.

The guitar solo, played by group founder Thomas McClary, was tricky business. He explained in a Songfacts interview: "When you have lyrics in a song that say, 'Why in the world would anybody put chains on me? I've paid my dues to make it,' you have to match the intensity of those lyrics to a sound and a feel that musically portrays the same intensity and the same context of what you're saying. A lot of ballads, the song would just end, but we wanted the guitar solo to take it to another level of intensity. So that was basically the inspiration behind it."