Eric Clapton celebrates his 79th birthday on Saturday, March 30. Clapton is considered one of the great guitarists of the rock era, and has created hugely successful and enduring music as a solo artist and with such bands as Cream, Blind Faith, and Derek and the Dominos.
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Slowhand, as he’s known, also has lent his ample talents to a wide variety of other well-known artists’ recordings over the years. In honor of his birthday, here’s a list of five noteworthy performances Clapton has contributed to other musicians’ songs:
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“While My Guitar Gently Weeps – The Beatles (1968)
“While My Guitar Gently Weeps” is arguably the most famous song featuring Clapton outside his own projects. While The Beatles were recording their self-tiled 1968 double album, a.k.a. “The White Album,” Clapton was invited to come to the studio by his good friend George Harrison to record a guitar solo on the track.
Harrison has said that bandmates John Lennon and Paul McCartney didn’t initially give “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” the attention he felt it deserved. He figured that by having Clapton contribute to it, they would be more likely to embrace the tune.
It turned out that he was right.
According to an interview with Harrison for the Beatles Anthology docuseries, Clapton was apprehensive because outside musicians rarely played on Beatles tracks and he was worried that George’s bandmates would disapprove.
“I said, ‘Look, it’s my song and I’d like you to play on it,’” Harrison recalled. “So he came in. I said, ‘Eric’s going to play on this one,’ and it was good because that then made everyone act better. Paul [McCartney] got on the piano and played a nice intro and they all took it more seriously.”
Clapton’s blues-infused solo was perfect for the song, and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” has gone on to become one of The Beatles’ most enduring rock songs.
“Good to Me as I Am to You” – Aretha Franklin (1968)
“Good to Me as I Am to You” is a dynamic and soulful blues tune featured on Aretha Franklin’s 1968 album Lady Soul, one of her early albums for Atlantic Records. Co-written by Franklin and her first husband and manager Ted White, the song features Clapton playing increasingly impassioned blues riffs as the track builds to a crescendo.
“Cold Turkey” – John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1969)
After playing on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” Clapton developed a friendship with John Lennon. In 1969, Lennon and wife Yoko Ono formed a side group called the Plastic Ono Band to record and release solo projects outside of The Beatles.
Lennon tapped Clapton to play as a member of the Plastic Ono Band at a September 1969 concert in Toronto, which included a performance of his new song “Cold Turkey.” Clapton subsequently played guitar on the studio version of the tune, recorded later that same month.
The gritty rock song was written by Lennon and inspired by his and Ono’s experience of overcoming their brief addictions to heroin.
“Cold Turkey” was released as Lennon’s second solo single; it peaked at No. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100.
“I Wish It Would Rain Down” – Phil Collins (1989)
“I Wish It Would Rain Down” was a track from Phil Collins’ chart-topping 1989 solo album …But Seriously. The song was one of several success singles from the album, peaking at No. 3 on the Hot 100 and No. 7 in the U.K. It also was the top-ranked single of 1990 in Canada.
Collins had played drums on a number of Clapton’s 1980s albums, and also had recently toured with him, when he decided to ask the guitar great to contribute to the track.
“I said, ‘Eric, have I never asked you to play? Come on, I’ve got a song right up your street,’” Collins explained in a 1989 interview promoting …But Seriously. “When I wrote ‘I Wish It Would Rain Down,’ it was as close as I get to the blues, I felt. And I just [felt] it was kind of an Eric song and I just knew that he’d wail away on it, and he came down here and did. It was great.”
Clapton also appears in the music video for “I Wish It Would Rain Down,” which features Arrested Development star Jeffrey Tambor as the frazzled director of a musical review whose singer has called in sick. In the clip, Clapton points out that Collins, who portrays the stage band’s drummer, can sing.
In a humorous nod to Collins’ history with Genesis, Clapton tells the director, “He used to be the drummer in a really good band, and when the singer left, he took over.”
“I Can’t Quit You Baby” – The Rolling Stones (2016)
“I Can’t Quit You Baby” is one of two songs on The Rolling Stones’ 2016 blues covers album Blue & Lonesome that feature Clapton. The song, which was written by Willie Dixon, was first recorded by Otis Rush in 1956.
On the Stones’ version, Clapton delivers tasteful, melodic riffs and runs throughout the track.
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