diff --git a/library/commands/command b/library/commands/command
index f61bd1f7dcc..69e8362bc7f 100644
--- a/library/commands/command
+++ b/library/commands/command
@@ -92,6 +92,24 @@ EXAMPLES = '''
     creates: /path/to/database
 '''
 
+# This is a pretty complex regex, which functions as follows:
+#
+# 1. (^|\s)
+# ^ look for a space or the beginning of the line
+# 2. (creates|removes|chdir|executable|NO_LOG)=
+# ^ look for a valid param, followed by an '='
+# 3. (?P<quote>[\'"])?
+# ^ look for an optional quote character, which can either be
+#   a single or double quote character, and store it for later
+# 4. (.*?)
+# ^ match everything in a non-greedy manner until...
+# 5. (?(quote)(?<!\\)(?P=quote))((?<!\\)(?=\s)|$)
+# ^ a non-escaped space or a non-escaped quote of the same kind
+#   that was matched in the first 'quote' is found, or the end of
+#   the line is reached
+
+PARAM_REGEX = re.compile(r'(^|\s)(creates|removes|chdir|executable|NO_LOG)=(?P<quote>[\'"])?(.*?)(?(quote)(?<!\\)(?P=quote))((?<!\\)(?=\s)|$)')
+
 def main():
 
     # the command module is the one ansible module that does not take key=value args
@@ -201,7 +219,6 @@ class CommandModule(AnsibleModule):
         lexer.ignore_quotes = "'"
         items = list(lexer)
 
-        command_args = ''
         for x in items:
             if '=' in x:
                 # check to see if this is a special parameter for the command
@@ -216,13 +233,9 @@ class CommandModule(AnsibleModule):
                         if not (os.path.exists(v)):
                             self.fail_json(rc=258, msg="cannot use executable '%s': file does not exist" % v)
                     params[k] = v
-                else:
-                    # this isn't a valid parameter, so just append it back to the list of arguments
-                    command_args = "%s %s" % (command_args, x)
-            else:
-                # not a param, so just append it to the list of arguments
-                command_args = "%s %s" % (command_args, x)
-        params['args'] = command_args.strip()
+        # Remove any of the above k=v params from the args string
+        args = PARAM_REGEX.sub('', args)
+        params['args'] = args
         return (params, params['args'])
 
 main()
diff --git a/test/integration/roles/setup_ec2/tasks/main.yml b/test/integration/roles/setup_ec2/tasks/main.yml
index b02c758b80d..c20785b998b 100644
--- a/test/integration/roles/setup_ec2/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/test/integration/roles/setup_ec2/tasks/main.yml
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
 # along with Ansible.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 
 - name: generate random string
-  command: python -c \"import string,random; print ''.join(random.choice(string.ascii_lowercase) for _ in xrange(8));\"
+  command: python -c "import string,random; print ''.join(random.choice(string.ascii_lowercase) for _ in xrange(8));"
   register: random_string
   tags:
     - prepare