"Keep It Simple" is a song recorded by Canadian

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, o ...

group

James Barker Band The James Barker Band is a Canadian country group formed in Woodville, Ontario, in 2015. The band consists of James Barker, Taylor Abram, Connor Stephen, and Bobby Martin. In Canada, they have four number one country singles with "Chills", "Keep I ...

. It was the lead single off their second extended play '' Singles Only''. The track was co-written by the band's frontman James Barker, with Gavin Slate, Travis Wood, and the track's producer Todd Clark. It was the band's second #1 hit on the ''Billboard'' Canada Country chart, and won Single of the Year at the 2020

CCMA Awards The Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA) was founded in 1976 as the Academy of Country Music Entertainment to organize, promote and develop a Canadian country music industry. The groundwork for the association began on June 3rd, 1973 when a gr ...

Background

James Barker told ''Sounds Like Nashville'' that "The concept of it in summation, is all about having a night we don’t have to get wild. You just stay home and hang with your significant other,… have a night in and just, you know, do what couples do". He told ''Canadian Beats Media'' that with this song "we wanted to push the boundaries a bit, which is something we take pride in, so people can definitely expect it to be a little different from anything we’ve released before. A big thing that we take in to account with our music is how it’s going to translate live, and how it will affect our live show. Keep It Simple is really fun and upbeat, which, to me, means it’s going to be a blast when we play it live!".

Critical reception

Taryn McElheran of ''Canadian Beats Media'' said the track is a "grand tune that keeps in line with JBB’s musical works". Kerry Doole of ''FYI Music News'' said the "upbeat mood of the well-executed song mirrors lyrics extolling the virtues of Friday night fun - "Let's keep it simple, here at the house, dance in the kitchen, straight to kissing on the couch." Quite simply, it sounds like another hit".

Accolades

Commercial performance

"Keep It Simple" was certified Platinum by

Music Canada Music Canada (formerly Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA)) is a non-profit trade organization that was founded 9 April 1963 to represent the interests of companies that record, manufacture, produce, and distribute music in Canada. It ...

on August 27, 2020 with over 80,000 sales, their second Platinum certification overall. As of May 2021, the song had received over 19.7 million streams through

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

Music video

The official music video for "Keep It Simple" was directed by Ben Knechtel and premiered February 19, 2019. The video features the band and is designed to appear as if it was the 1950s.

Chart performance

"Keep It Simple" reached a peak of number 1 on the ''Billboard''

Canada Country The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the wor ...

chart dated June 1, 2019, their second chart topper after "

Chills Chills is a feeling of coldness occurring during a high fever, but sometimes is also a common symptom which occurs alone in specific people. It occurs during fever due to the release of cytokines and prostaglandins as part of the inflammatory ...

". It also peaked at number 87 on the ''Billboard'' Canadian Hot 100 and is their highest charting entry there.

Certifications

References

{{authority control 2019 songs 2019 singles James Barker Band songs Universal Music Canada singles Canadian Country Music Association Single of the Year singles Songs written by James Barker (singer) Songs written by Todd Clark Songs written by Gavin Slate Songs written by Travis Wood (songwriter) Song recordings produced by Todd Clark