diff --git a/apiclient/discovery.py b/apiclient/discovery.py
index a5b7c9a..fe98db1 100644
--- a/apiclient/discovery.py
+++ b/apiclient/discovery.py
@@ -111,7 +111,10 @@
       if resp.status == 204:
         # A 204: No Content response should be treated differently to all the other success states
         return simplejson.loads('{}')
-      return simplejson.loads(content)['data']
+      body = simplejson.loads(content)
+      if isinstance(body, dict) and 'data' in body:
+        body = body['data']
+      return body
     else:
       logging.debug('Content from bad request was: %s' % content)
       if resp.get('content-type', '').startswith('application/json'):
diff --git a/tests/test_json_model.py b/tests/test_json_model.py
index a8da2b6..2bf0302 100644
--- a/tests/test_json_model.py
+++ b/tests/test_json_model.py
@@ -140,5 +140,23 @@
     content = model.response(resp, content)
     self.assertEqual(content, 'is good')
 
+  def test_good_response_wo_data(self):
+    model = JsonModel()
+    resp = httplib2.Response({'status': '200'})
+    resp.reason = 'OK'
+    content = '{"foo": "is good"}'
+
+    content = model.response(resp, content)
+    self.assertEqual(content, {'foo': 'is good'})
+
+  def test_good_response_wo_data_str(self):
+    model = JsonModel()
+    resp = httplib2.Response({'status': '200'})
+    resp.reason = 'OK'
+    content = '"data goes here"'
+
+    content = model.response(resp, content)
+    self.assertEqual(content, 'data goes here')
+
 if __name__ == '__main__':
   unittest.main()