Songoftheday 2/27/14 - How many times must I tell you baby how many bridges I've got to cross, how many times have I got to explain myself before I talk to the boss...

Eric Clapton - "Forever Man"
from the album Behind The Sun (1985)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #26 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 6

Today's Song of the Day is by "Slow Hand", the guitar legend himself, Eric Clapton, who we last saw in 1983 with "I've Got A Rock N Roll Heart" from the album he recorded while recovering from drug addiction, Money & Cigarettes. After that, he appears on Roger Waters' first post-Pink Floyd album and tour, before heading back in the studio with Phil Collins from Genesis to record his ninth solo album Behind The Sun. The first single from the set, "Forever Man", was like an extra-pop-hook-filled sequel to "Layla" with the synths just as prominent as his ax. It was written by Jerry Lynn Williams, who penned the top-10 "Giving It Up For Your Love" for Delbert McClinton in the late 70s...

"Forever Man" reached the top-40 in April of 1985, while becoming Clapton's second Billboard Mainstream Rock radio hit (after "I Can't Stand It"). Internationally, it would be a #15 hit in the Netherlands, but stalled out under the top-40 at #51 in his native England.

It would be his last top-40 pop hit in the 80's, though a lot of critics downplay his work in that period, I especially have a big fondness for the two albums he did with Collins, Behind The Sun and August. They both are extremely tight albums front to back with half of each being singlesworthy. He would show up again big on the pop chart at the beginning of the next decade after the death of his son Conor which inspired his #2 hit "Tears In Heaven".

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Here's Eric on tour in the 80s with the song...


And again in concert with Steve Winwood from 2008...

In 2000, Danish dance music act Beatchuggers incorporating the record into "Forever Man (How Many Times?)", and went to #26 on the UK charts (better than the original)...


Up tomorrow: A Revivalist wants some music-lovin' females.