Easy To Love

"Easy To Love" by Leo Sayer: A Pop Craftsman Closes Out a Golden Run

Imagine the radio in the winter of 1977 going into 1978: disco is tightening its grip on the dance floor, soft rock fills the AM dial, and somewhere in the mix sits a curly-haired Englishman with an outsized voice and a knack for melodies that lodge in your skull for days. Leo Sayer had spent the middle of the decade as one of pop's most reliable hitmakers, a performer who could pivot from theatrical balladeer to disco-tinged crooner without missing a beat. "Easy To Love" arrived at the close of that remarkable stretch, a polished slice of late-1970s pop from an artist riding a genuine commercial high.

Leo Sayer at His Commercial Peak

By the time this single appeared, Sayer was no longer the eccentric newcomer who had first emerged earlier in the decade dressed as a Pierrot clown. He had become a transatlantic star. He had topped the American charts twice in 1977 with "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing" and "When I Need You", two number-one hits that demonstrated his striking range, one a feather-light disco confection and the other a soaring ballad. That pair of chart-toppers turned him into a household name in the United States, and "Easy To Love" followed in their wake as he tried to extend a banner year into the new one.

The Sound of Late-Seventies Pop Polish

The track itself sits comfortably in the warm, slickly produced pop of its moment. Sayer's voice, with its distinctive high tenor and emotional urgency, carries the melody over an arrangement built for adult-contemporary radio. There is the gloss of strings and the supple groove typical of his hit run during this period, a sound engineered to feel both intimate and radio-ready. Where his biggest singles leaned hard into either the dance floor or the slow dance, "Easy To Love" occupies a gentler middle ground, the kind of breezy, affectionate pop that defined so much of the era's mainstream.

A More Modest Chart Run

The chart numbers tell the story of an artist whose hot streak was beginning to cool. "Easy To Love" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 74 on December 10, 1977, and worked its way upward through the holiday season. It reached its peak of number 36 on January 28, 1978, and stayed on the chart for a total of 10 weeks. That was a perfectly respectable showing, but it landed well short of the number-one heights he had reached only months earlier. The single signaled, in retrospect, that the extraordinary run of 1977 would be hard to sustain indefinitely, as the pop landscape kept shifting under everyone's feet.

A Footnote With Real Charm

In the grand sweep of Leo Sayer's career, "Easy To Love" is one of the songs that rounds out the portrait of his most successful era. It does not carry the iconic weight of his chart-toppers, but it captures the same craftsmanship, the same commitment to a strong hook and a heartfelt vocal. For listeners who fell for him during his peak, it is a warm reminder of just how prolific and consistent he was when the hits were flowing. It is the sound of a master pop singer doing exactly what he did best, even as the calendar turned toward a new and more uncertain phase.

A Window Into His Most Prolific Stretch

Part of what makes "Easy To Love" rewarding for fans is the way it fills in the texture of an extraordinarily busy period. Sayer was not a one-hit artist coasting on a single lucky break; he was a working pop professional churning out polished, hook-laden records at a rapid clip. Singles like this one show the depth behind the headline successes, the steady stream of well-made songs that surrounded his chart-toppers. The arrangement is unhurried and confident, the melody graceful, the vocal performance committed. There is a craftsman's pride in every bar. For listeners who only remember his two number-one smashes, this track is a reminder that the brilliance of that year was not a fluke but the product of a genuinely gifted and tireless performer operating at the very top of his form.

Cue it up and let the smooth, sincere sweep of "Easy To Love" return you to a season when Leo Sayer's voice was one of the most welcome sounds on the radio.

"Easy To Love" — Leo Sayer's singular moment on the 1970s charts.