Songoftheday 8/5/18 - What'll you do when you get lonely and nobody's waiting by your side? You've been running and hiding much too long you know it's just your foolish pride...

"Layla (Unplugged)" - Eric Clapton
from the album Unplugged (1992)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #12 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14

Today's song of the day comes from rock legend Eric Clapton, whose career had gained a giant upturn at the expense of tragedy with the success of the ballad mourning his dead son, "Tears In Heaven", in the spring of 1992. As that song was climbing the charts in the beginning of that year, Clapton agreed to appear on an installment of the MTV acoustic musical show Unplugged. His episode, taped in January, was released in August of 1992, and would go on to be the biggest-selling live album in rock and roll history. Besides a stripped down cover of "Tears In Heaven", the set included a revision of a classic rock anthem of his, from one of his old "bands" Derek & The Dominos. The act, meant to distract from Eric being billed as a solo artist, contained people he worked with in the act Delaney & Bonnie & Friends; drummer Jim Gordon, keyboardist Bobby Whitlock, and bass player Carl Radle. With assistance from the Allman Brothers' Duane Allman, the Dominos released their only studio album in 1970. Titled Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, the record was centered around the titular "Layla", a seven-minute-plus suite written by Clapton with Gordon supplying the second instrumental "coda" portion of the song. Inspired by a sad love poem from the 13th century portraying events from six centuries prior, where a man is prohibited from marrying the woman he loves, Clapton used the song to convey feelings he had about his love for Patti Boyd, then the wife of Beatle and good friend George Harrison. The epic musical result, though, took a while to reach the masses. The original single version, released in 1970, was cut down to less than 3 minutes time, and only managed to reach #51 on the American pop chart...

But the buzz behind the track would grow and grow, eventually calling for the release of the full seven minute epic as a true single. In returned Eric climbed to #10 on the American pop chart, #9 in Canada, and #7 in the UK the following year. It included the second part of the "suite", which was led by Gordon on piano...

The transformation Clapton gave "Layla" on Unplugged was to make it a slower, more bluesy animal, and still riding on the success of "Tears In Heaven", allowed new fans to connect to this Clapton classic. The unforgettable lead guitar riff becomes a circular piano hook that still feels fresh and comfortable at the same time...

Clapton's live unplugged version of "Layla" climbed up to just beneath the pop top ten in November of 1992. The song also made it to #9 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock radio chart, and #8 on their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") format list. Interntaionally, this second go at the track spent a week at #1 in Canada, and reached the top ten in Australia (#7), Italy (#8), the Netherlands (#8), and Poland (#3). In the UK, it just missed the pop top 40 at #45. A follow radio single, "Running On Faith", was a remake of a track on his 1990 Journeyman album, and got up to #15 on the Mainstream Rock chart and #28 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary list. At the 1993 Grammy Awards, Clapton would win six trophies, including two for Unplugged for Album of the Year and Male Rock Vocal Performance, while "Layla" would win for Best Rock Song.

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Here's Clapton performing the classic version of the song along with Phil Collins at the iconic Live Aid concert in 1985...