November 9, 1970: Eric Clapton Releases "Layla"

Eric Clapton (left) and Duane Allman

November 9, 1970: Derek and the Dominos release Layla and Other Love Songs, their only album. The only song you need to know is the title track, which Eric Clapton wrote for the woman he loved – Pattie Boyd, a.k.a. the current Mrs. George Harrison. She left George for Eric, but they ended up divorced, too. Despite this, Eric and George remained friends until George's death.

All members of the Dominos had recently worked with "Delaney & Bonnie and Friends." Delaney Bramlett and Bonnie Bramlett had briefly led a rock group, which included Clapton, guitarist Duane Allman of The Allman Brothers Band, keyboard player Bobby Whitlock, bass guitarist Carl Radle, and drummer Jim Gordon.

Clapton and Gordon wrote "Layla," which is, essentially, 2 songs. At the 3-minute, 11-second mark of the song, following 45 seconds of Clapton wordlessly crying through his guitar, a 4-minute movement begins, with Gordon on piano, and, as one rock historian put it, Clapton and Allman chasing each other into the heavens on their guitars.

Pattie Boyd later said of Clapton and the song, "I think that he was amazingly raw at the time... He's such an incredible musician that he's able to put his emotions into music in such a way that the audience can feel it instinctively. It goes right through you."

In 1990, Martin Scorcese used the guitar outro to show the murderous aftermath of the Lufthansa heist in his film Goodfellas. In 1992, for his appearance on MTV Unplugged, Clapton played a stripped-down version of "Layla," which made the song a hit all over again.

Allman, who had that long guitar duet with Clapton to close "Layla," was killed in a motorcycle wreck in 1971. Radle died from drug-induced kidney trouble in 1980. Gordon is an even more tragic story: In 1983, he murdered his mother, and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Nevertheless, he was convicted, and, as of November 9, 2022, remains in prison at California Medical Facility in Vacaville. Clapton and Whitlock are still alive. (UPDATE: Gordon died in prison in 2023.)

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November 9, 1970 was a Monday. Two notable music personalities were born on the day: Susan Tedeschi, who would marry Allman Brothers drummer Butch Trucks and tour alternately with him and the band; and Brad Jordan, the Geto Boys rapper known as Scarface. Hockey player Bill Guerin and professional wrestler Chris Jericho were also born.

Baseball was out of season. On ABC Monday Night Football, the Baltimore Colts beat the Green Bay Packers, 13-10 at Milwaukee County Stadium. This was the 1st season for the show, this meant that County Stadium hosted a Monday night game before Lambeau Field in Green Bay did.

There were no games in the NBA or the NHL, but there were 2 in the American Basketball Association. The Indiana Pacers beat the Kentucky Colonels, 130-112 at the Indiana State Fair Coliseum (now the Corteva Coliseum) in Indianapolis. And the team then known as the Memphis Pros beat the team then known as the Texas Chaparrals, 105-91 at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis.