"Ain't So Easy" by David & David

Song#:  2994
Date:  01/24/1987
Debut:  93
Peak:  51
Weeks:  11
Genre:  Rock



Pop Bits:  The duo of David Baerwald and David Ricketts got themselves on the charts with their debut single "Welcome to the Boomtown." The track would get to #8 at Rock while cracking the Pop Top 40 (#37). The hit would help their album reach #39. For a follow-up, this next song was selected. It would do fine at Rock getting to #17, but this time around the single was unable to make it into the top half of the Pop chart. One other track from their debut album Boomtown, "Swallowed By the Cracks," would get to #14 at Rock. Overall, it was a fairly successful start for the duo. However, it seems the pitfalls of the music business and success seemed to trap the pair and they called it quits before they could record a second album.

ReduxReview:  This is another good track from the duo that did have some commercial prospects. The percolating synths in the background drove the song while the chorus was hooky enough to remain memorable. It was an easygoing track where lyrics like "attend to your aches" and "rub my back" make it seem all is relaxing and wonderful. Yet if you read the lyrics you will quickly learn that this is a dark tune that ends on what could be interpreted as a threat - "I could never let you get away." Also note the line in the first verse that states "I'm sorry about your eye." Yikes. There was a menacing undercurrent beneath the bubbly music, but that pretty much summed up David & David. It's a shame they didn't do a follow-up album.

ReduxRating:  7/10

Trivia:  Double Shot!  1) This song featured background vocals by Toni Childs. After David & David collapsed, David Ricketts would go on to co-write songs for and co-produce Union, the debut album of Toni Childs. The album would eventually go gold and earn Childs two Grammy nods including one for Best New Artist. Ricketts would also co-produce the platinum-selling second album by Meredith Brooks, Blurring the Edges. That LP featured Brooks' breakthrough hit, the #2 "Bitch." That song would earn Brooks two Grammys nods. Ricketts would go on to win an Emmy award along with Childs in 2004. The pair along with Eddy Free wrote the song "Because You Are Beautiful" for the Lifetime TV documentary V-Day: Until the Violence Stops. The tune, performed by Childs, won the Emmy for Best Outstanding Music and Lyrics.  2) David Baerwald would go on to start a solo career. He released albums in 1990 and 1992. Both were critically well-received, but failed to chart. Baerwald and Ricketts were key players and songwriters on the 1993 debut album by Sheryl Crow, Tuesday Night Music Club. Baerwald co-wrote the hit "All I Wanna Do," which reached #2 at Pop and was nominated for a Song of the Year Grammy. Baerwald would continue to release albums on occasion while supplying songs to other artists. He also co-wrote "Come What May," a song featured in the hit 2001 film Moulin Rouge! The song would earn Baerwald a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song.

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