"Simple" is a song by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

duo

Florida Georgia Line Florida Georgia Line was an American country music duo founded in 2010 by vocalists and songwriters Tyler Hubbard of Georgia and Brian Kelley of Florida. Their 2012 debut single " Cruise" broke two major sales records: it was downloaded over ...

. It is their fifteenth solo single release, and the first from their fourth studio album ''

Can't Say I Ain't Country ''Can't Say I Ain't Country'' is the fourth studio album by American country music duo Florida Georgia Line. It was released on February 15, 2019, through the Big Machine Label Group. It includes the singles "Simple" and " Talk You Out of It", as ...

''. Written by duo members

Tyler Hubbard Tyler Reed Hubbard (born January 31, 1987) is an American singer-songwriter, and musician, best known as a member of the Nashville-based duo Florida Georgia Line. After that duo went on hiatus in 2021, Hubbard began recording as a solo artist on ...

and Brian Kelley along with

Michael Hardy Michael Hardy may refer to: *Hardy (singer) Michael Wilson Hardy (born September 13, 1990), known mononymously as Hardy (stylized as HARDY), is an American country music singer and songwriter. He has written songs for Florida Georgia Line, Chris ...

and Mark Holman, the song expresses romantic love as a "simple" concept. The song has been promoted through the use of black-and-white photography on the duo's

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

account, along with a

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

directed by Justin Clough.

Content

The song was one of two tracks leaked in advance of Florida Georgia Line's upcoming fourth studio album. It is their first solo single release since " Smooth" in late 2017, although the duo had hit singles as featured artists on

Morgan Wallen Morgan Cole Wallen (born May 13, 1993) is an American country pop singer from Sneedville, Tennessee. He competed in the The Voice (American season 6), sixth season of ''The Voice (American TV series), The Voice''. After being eliminated in the ...

's " Up Down",

Hailee Steinfeld Hailee Steinfeld (born December 11, 1996) is an American actress, singer, and songwriter. She had her breakthrough with the western film ''True Grit (2010 film), True Grit'' (2010), which earned her List of awards and nominations received by H ...

's " Let Me Go" and

Bebe Rexha Bleta "Bebe" Rexha ( , ; born August 30, 1989) is an American singer and songwriter. She signed with Warner Records in 2013, and was credited with co-writing releases of other artists—such as Eminem's Grammy Award-winning single " The Monster" ...

's " Meant to Be" in between. Duo members

and Brian Kelley wrote the song with Michael Hardy and Mark Holman, and

Joey Moi Joey Moi (born August 9, 1975) is a Canadian record producer, audio engineer, mixer, songwriter, and musician. He is known for his work with the rock groups Nickelback and My Darkest Days, and country music acts Chris Lane, Dallas Smith, Florida G ...

produced the track. It features "banjos and a whistling melody", and a

hook A hook is a tool consisting of a length of material, typically metal, that contains a portion that is curved/bent back or has a deeply grooved indentation, which serves to grab, latch or in any way attach itself onto another object. The hook's d ...

in which the two spell out the title. Chris Parton of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

Country'' compared the song's sound to

Mumford & Sons Mumford & Sons are a British folk rock band formed in London in 2007. The band consists of Marcus Mumford (lead vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, drums), Ted Dwane (vocals, double bass, bass guitar), and Ben Lovett (British musician), B ...

and

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros was an American folk rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 2005. The group was led by singer Alex Ebert. The band's name is based on a story Ebert wrote in his youth, about a messianic figure name ...

. Hubbard and Kelley both discussed the song in an interview with ''

Nash Country Daily ''Country Weekly'' (known as ''Nash Country Weekly'' from 2015–16) was an American magazine about country music. It was in circulation between April 1994 and May 2016. The publisher, Cumulus Media, now maintains the site Nash Country Daily. O ...

''. Hubbard said that "Majority of the time, I just find that for us it’s just easy to keep it simple. There's no need to complicate it, especially when it comes to love and urrelationships with our wives and our families. Just a little reminder to simplify things every now and then and have a good time while you do it", while Kelley stated that it was "the next step for FGL" and a "fresh sound". The two also stated in an interview on

iHeartRadio iHeartRadio (often shortened to just "iHeart") is an American freemium broadcast, podcast, radio streaming and Music Streaming platform owned by iHeartMedia. Founded in August 2008, iHeartRadio serves as the national umbrella brand for iHeart ...

's website that the two drew lyrical inspiration from their relationships with their own wives and families. Thematically, the song is about keeping a relationship "simple" and expressing the emotion of romantic love in simple fashions. The duo promoted the song on

by erasing all other pictures from the account and replacing them with captioned black-and-white photos.

Commercial performance

Simple debuted at No. 24 on the Country Airplay chart on its release on June 1, 2018. It peaked at No. 1 on Country Airplay in October 2018, which is Florida Georgia Line's 14th No. 1 on the chart, making them a duo or group with the second-most No. 1s on the chart, tying with

Rascal Flatts Rascal Flatts is an American Country music, country music band formed in 1999 in Nashville, Tennessee. The band consists of Gary LeVox (lead vocals), Jay DeMarcus (bass guitar, background vocals), and Joe Don Rooney (lead guitar, background voc ...

behind

Brooks & Dunn Brooks & Dunn are an American country music duo consisting of Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn, both of whom are vocalists and songwriters. The duo was founded in 1988 through the suggestion of songwriter and record producer, Tim DuBois. Before thei ...

. The song was certified double platinum on September 13, 2019. The song has sold 367,000 copies in the United States as of January 2019. As of May 2024, the song had 388,804,313 streams on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

Music video

Directed by Justin Clough, the music video features a grandfather recalling a romantic story to his grandchildren, interspersed with scenes from his wife and his younger self crashing a party in the 1930s.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Florida Georgia Line 2018 songs 2018 singles Florida Georgia Line songs Republic Nashville singles Songs written by Tyler Hubbard Songs written by Brian Kelley (musician) Songs written by Hardy (singer) Song recordings produced by Joey Moi