Cocaine
by Eric Clapton
- 103
- BPM
- D minor
- Key
- 7A
- Camelot
- 70
- Danceability
- 7
- Acousticness
In 1976, JJ Cale wrote and recorded "Cocaine" with a small circle of players. Cale sang and played guitar and bass. Doug Bartenfeld played guitar, Reggie Young took the guitar solo, Kenny Buttrey was on drums and Farrell Morris handled percussion.
The song belonged to Cale first, and his version was a number-one hit in New Zealand for one week. It became the seventh-best-selling single of 1977. It was Eric Clapton who made it widely known, with his own version on the 1977 album Slowhand.
By then Clapton had spent years in some of rock's best-known groups. He joined the Yardbirds in 1963 and left in 1965, then played with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers until 1966. After that he formed Cream with drummer Ginger Baker and bassist Jack Bruce. Cream broke up in November 1968, and he went on to Blind Faith, toured with Delaney and Bonnie, recorded his first solo album in 1970 and formed Derek and the Dominos.
Cocaine runs at 103 BPM, the tempo of mid-tempo pop, dancehall and indie. In classical terms it sits in andante territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 2.33 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 583 ms. It is in D minor, Camelot 7A, which shares its notes with F major and mixes cleanly with G minor and A minor.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.