Folk Song Index
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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[]

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Weekly charts[]

Chart (1974) Peak
position
Australian KMR[4] 74
Canadian RPM Top Singles[5] 11
Canadian RPM Adult Contemporary [6] 1
Canadian RPM Country Tracks [7] 1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 10
U.S. Billboard Easy Listening 1
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles 81

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Year-end charts[]

Chart (1974) Rank
Canada [8] 121
U.S. (Joel Whitburn's Pop Annual)[9] 102

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References[]

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External links[]

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