Carefree Highway (song)

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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.
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." 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: "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."
==Chart performance==
===Weekly charts===
Chart (1974) 	Peakposition
Australian KMR 	74
Canadian RPM Top Singles 	11
Canadian RPM Adult Contemporary 	1
Canadian RPM Country Tracks 	1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 	10
U.S. Billboard Easy Listening 	1
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles	81
===Year-end charts===
Chart (1974) 	Rank
Canada 	121
U.S. (Joel Whitburn's Pop Annual)	102
==References==
==External links==
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Category:1974 singles
Category:Gordon Lightfoot songs
Category:Billboard Adult Contemporary number-one singles
Category:RPM Country Tracks number-one singles
Category:Songs written by Gordon Lightfoot
Category:RPM Adult Contemporary number-one singles
Category:Song recordings produced by Lenny Waronker
Category:1974 songs
Category:Reprise Records singles