"Simple" is a song by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

duo

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

. 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 former member of the Nashville-based duo Florida Georgia Line. Hubbard, a native of Monroe, Georgia, had been involved with music since a y ...

and Brian Kelley along with Hardy 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 a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

account, along with a

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

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 Smooth may refer to: Mathematics * Smooth function, a function that is infinitely differentiable; used in calculus and topology * Smooth manifold, a differentiable manifold for which all the transition maps are smooth functions * Smooth algebrai ...

" 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 singer and songwriter. He competed in the sixth season of ''The Voice'', originally as a member of Usher's team, but later as a member of Adam Levine's team. After being eliminated ...

's " Up Down",

Hailee Steinfeld Hailee Steinfeld (born December 11, 1996) is an American actress and singer. She is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Hailee Steinfeld, various accolades, including a Peabody Award, and nominations for an Academy Award ...

's "

Let Me Go Let or LET may refer to: Sports * Let serve, when the served object in certain racket sports hits the net and lands in the correct service court, such as; ** Let (badminton) ** Let (pickleball) ** Let (tennis) * Ladies European Tour, the ladi ...

" and

Bebe Rexha Bleta Rexha (; born August 30, 1989), known professionally as Bebe Rexha ( ), is an American pop singer and songwriter. After signing with Warner Records in 2013, Rexha received songwriting credits on Eminem's single " The Monster" (which later ...

'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 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 Georgia Line, Jake Ow ...

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

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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, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

Country'' compared the song's sound to

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

and

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

. Hubbard and Kelley both discussed the song in an interview with ''Nash Country Daily''. 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 and radio streaming Computing platform, platform owned by iHeartMedia. It was founded in August 2008. , iHeartRadio was functioning as the national umbr ...

'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 band founded in 1999. The band members were Gary LeVox (lead vocals), Jay DeMarcus (bass guitar, background vocals), and Joe Don Rooney (lead guitar, background vocals). DeMarcus is LeVox's second cousi ...

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 1990 through the suggestion of Tim DuBois. Before their formation, both members were solo ...

. 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.

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