The “Golden Hits Of The 70s”
Main MenuConcept Refinement The Author..Wayne JancikGolden Age Of The 50sGolden Age Of The 60s1970s and There After
FREDDIE HART
“EASY LOVING”
(Freddie Hart)
Capitol 3115
No. 17 November 20, 1971
.
.
.
Freddie Hart: what a man, what a life. No way could it have been easy. Born one of 15 children in
Lockapoka, Alabama, on December 21, 1933, Freddie ran away from home when seven years of age. To
survive, he picked cotton, washed dishes, laid pipeline, worked in sawmills, steel mills, and on oil rigs. At
age 14, Freddie passed himself off as being of proper age, and enlisted in the Marines, where he saw action
on lwo Jima, Okinawa, and Guam. On completing his tour of duty, Freddie, always a physical-fitness
advocate and possessor of a black belt in karate, became a self-defense instructor at the Los Angeles Police
Academy.
.
Barely 20, Hart met C & W honky-tonk legend Lefty Frizzell. Lefty took the kid under his wing, put him in
his band, let him sing some songs, and walked him into Capitol Records in 1953. It would be six years
before Hart would have his first major C & W hit with “The Wall” and another decade before nearly the
whole world would hear of Freddie and his “Easy Loving.” The self-penned tune eventually sold more
than a million copies and garnered the Country Music Association’s “Song of the Year” award for both 1971
and 1972.
.
“Pretty Sex, that’s what I like to put across in my songs,” Freddie told Country Music’s Joan Dew. ‘”Easy
Iovin’, so sexy lookin” … that one line says it all. I almost took it out of the song.”
.
While Hart never again managed to cross over onto the pop/rock charts, he continued for much of the ’70s
to claim top-five C & W positions with recordings that included “My Hang-up Is You,” “Got the All Overs
for You,” “If You Can’t Feel It, It Ain’t There,” and “Hang on in There Girl.” In addition to recording as a
solo artist, Hart has been composing tunes for more than 30 years, some of which have been successfully
waxed by other country performers. His “Loose Talk” has been covered more than 50 times.
.
Freddie Hart is reportedly a very wealthy man. He owns a trucking company, raises fruit and cattle, and
runs a school for the handicapped. While his popularity in country circles has declined of late, Freddie
still records honest, honky-tonkin’ material for the small Brylen label.