What if someone released an impassioned twin-guitar genius record and nobody cared? That’s basically what happened – at least initially – with the only album from Derek and the Dominos. Issued on Nov. 9, 1970, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs wouldn’t earn gold-selling certification for almost 10 months. The LP wouldn’t chart for decades in the U.K.
In time, however, a one-off group that included both Eric Clapton and Duane Allman found its audience, as the album returned to the U.S. charts in 1972 then again in 1974 and 1977. Their signature single “Layla” stalled at a mind-boggling No. 51 in 1971, only to roar into the Top 10 the following year.
Listeners – eventually – discovered a searing blues-rock masterpiece, born out of jam sessions around George Harrison‘s All Things Must Pass and powered by Clapton’s unrequited love for Harrison’s wife, Pattie Boyd. Though he ended up on 11 songs, Allman was a late arrival. The core of the band – and the record – was drummer Jim Gordon, bassist Carl Radle and keyboardist Bobby Whitlock, who’d recently anchored a guest-packed Delaney and Bonnie tour that also included turns by Clapton, Harrison and Allman.
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The first two Derek and the Dominos studio cuts were completed during sessions for All Things Must Pass, after Clapton and Whitlock had written most of the Layla album at the guitarist’s Hurtwood Edge estate. They’d already completed three more songs before Allman arrived. Together, they laced in choice covers like “Have You Ever Loved a Woman” “Little Wing” that sounded completely of a piece with the heartbroken centerpiece title track. It was going to be a great record, with or without Allman. He just added another (often lyrical, simply gorgeous) voice to the conversation.
Things came together so quickly that Derek and the Dominos’ debut actually arrived before Harrison’s LP. His sold millions while theirs languished. Eventually, everyone went their separate ways. Clapton got the girl (then lost her). What remained was his very best album, as Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs was propelled by so much musical camaraderie and sheer emotion that Clapton didn’t have a time to indulge his usual tendency to coast.
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Gallery Credit: UCR Staff
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