Eric Clapton: Slowhand (35th anniversary edition) [BACK TO BLACK/POLYDOR]

Why you'll love it

This 35th anniversary edition comes in a gatefold jacket. Slowhand is one of Clapton's most successful studio albums, with the hit singles "Lay Down Sally" and "Wonderful Tonight," and Rolling Stone ranks it among the 500 greatest albums of all time.

This edition

• 35th anniversary edition
• Gatefold jacket

About the album

Giorgio Gomelsky gave Eric Clapton the nickname Slowhand back in the Yardbirds days, and it stuck so well that it became the title of his fifth solo album. Clapton liked that Americans heard a whiff of the Wild West in it. The record, out in November 1977, is the sound of a road-tested band at ease, laid back but razor sharp.

Clapton chose Glyn Johns to produce because of his work with the Rolling Stones and Eagles, and Johns kept the sessions disciplined, with no aimless jamming. "Cocaine" opens on J.J. Cale's indelible riff, "Wonderful Tonight" is a tender ballad written for Pattie Boyd, and "Lay Down Sally" shuffles along with an easy country lilt. Further in, Clapton covers John Martyn's "May You Never" and Arthur Crudup's "Mean Old Frisco," and "Next Time You See Her" and "The Core" show off his band's bite. Clapton designed the artwork himself with Boyd and Dave Stewart, credited as El & Nell Ink.

AllMusic ranks it alongside 461 Ocean Boulevard as his best work. "Wonderful Tonight" has since soundtracked more slow dances than anyone could count, and we'd wager a good few of those couples still argue over who stepped on whose feet.

Also at Kops: more Eric Clapton on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Polydor / RSO (cat# B0017702-01), a reissue of the 1977 album.