A damped trapezoidal rule method for numerical time-integration is presented, and its application in analyses of dynamic response of damped structures is discussed. It is shown that the damped trapezoidal rule method has features that make it an attractive approach for applications in dynamic analyses of structures. Accuracy and stability analyses are developed for the damped single-degree-of-freedom systems. Error analyses are also performed for the Newmark beta method and compared with the damped trapezoidal rule method as a basis for discussion of the relative merits of the proposed method. The procedure is fully explicit and easy to implement. However, since the method is an explicit method, it is conditionally stable. The methodology is applied to several example problems to illustrate its strengths, limitations and inherent simplicity.