Layla
by Derek and the Dominos
- 115
- BPM
- D minor
- Key
- 7A
- Camelot
- 40
- Danceability
- 59
- Acousticness
Eric Clapton did not write "Layla" alone. Drummer Jim Gordon shares the credit, and the song's contrasting movements were composed separately by the two men before it was recorded with Derek and the Dominos. The piano part has also been controversially credited to Rita Coolidge, Gordon's girlfriend at the time.
Gordon was in the backing band for Delaney & Bonnie, along with bassist Carl Radle and keyboardist Bobby Whitlock. In the spring of 1970 all three were leaving the group, and Clapton seized the chance to form a new band with them. By Clapton's account, they "made our bones" backing George Harrison on All Things Must Pass. During the making of the album Duane Allman joined as a guest. The engineer and producer Tom Dowd introduced him to Clapton at an Allman Brothers concert at the Miami Beach Convention Center on August 26, 1970.
The title came from the story of Layla and Majnun, which Clapton's friend Ian Dallas had told him. It moved Clapton. He was desperately in love with Pattie Boyd, the wife of Harrison. Boyd divorced Harrison in 1977 and married Clapton in 1979. The song was the thirteenth track on Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, released in 1970.
Layla runs at 115 BPM, the tempo of pop, funk and disco-leaning dance. In classical terms it sits in moderato territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 2.09 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 522 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.