Forgiving You Was Easy

Album: Me & Paul (1985)
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Songfacts®:

  • In this uptempo country tune, Willie Nelson has no trouble forgiving the woman he loves - it's forgetting her that's the problem. "That's a sort of generalized song, I guess," he explained in The Billboard Book Of Number One Country Hits. "I could probably apply it to a dozen situations in my life."
  • Nelson wrote this while he was working on a duet album with Faron Young (Funny How Time Slips Away) but ultimately decided to hang on to it and release it as a solo single. It was a #1 hit on the Country chart.
  • Nelson's previous chart-topper was "City Of New Orleans," a cover of the Steve Goodman-penned song that was a hit for Arlo Guthrie in 1972.
  • This was the first single from Me & Paul, Nelson's 32nd studio album. The title refers to Nelson's longtime drummer, Paul English.
  • On July 13, 1985, the same day this reached the summit on the Country chart after a 13-week climb from #70, Bob Geldof's Live Aid concerts premiered on television and raised millions of dollars for the African famine. The fundraiser gave Nelson the idea for Farm Aid, a series of concerts that helped raise money for the struggling farming community in the US. The first Farm Aid concert was held on September 22, 1985 at the University of Illinois in Champaign. The live telecast garnered $10 million in pledges.
  • Country singer Johnny Rodriguez recorded a version, featuring vocals from Nelson, for his 1985 album, Full Circle. That same year, he and Nelson performed it together at the first Farm Aid concert. Rodriguez already had some personal history with Nelson: He dated the singer's daughter Lana in the mid-'70s and later married her for a brief period in 1995.

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