ERIC CLAPTON (UK)

Born: 30 March 1945
Real name: Eric Patrick Clapton

Clapton was born in Ripley, a town to the south west of London. His father was a Canadian soldier who returned to Canada after the war and Clapton grew up thinking that his grandmother and her second husband were his parents and that his mother was his older sister (she would have been 16 when Eric was born). When he was 13, he got given a guitar for his birthday, but initially struggled with it so lost interest. It took a couple of years before he picked up the instrument again and this time he stuck to it and became proficient. He began busking and started performing along with his friend David Brock who would go on to be a member of the band Hawkwind. He then joined The Roosters who’s line-up included Tom McGuiness, a future member of Manfred Mann. In October 1963 he joined The Yardbirds and really began to get noticed. He earned his nickname ‘Slowhand’ because when he broke a guitar string on stage, he would fix it there and then while the audience would start a slow handclap. However, The Yardbirds began to move towards a more pop rock sound while Clapton was a Rhythm and Blues man. He then had a brief stint with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers before moving on to form the band Cream with which he had major successes seeing 4 top 10 UK albums including a number 1 with their swansong, ‘Goodbye’. He then formed Blind Faith and would work with Delaney and Bonnie before forming Derek & The Dominos and having a massive hit with ‘Layla’. After this he began performing and recording as a solo artist. He has seen 33 UK charting hits (at the time of writing) although the only number 1 he has to his name was where he had a credit on ‘Love Can Build A Bridge’ which featured Cher, Chrissie Hynde and Neneh Cherry. He has managed 12 Hot 100 hits in the US with ‘I Shot The Sheriff’, his cover of the Bob Marley number, giving him his only chart topper there. In 1979 he married George Harrison’s ex-wife Patty Boyd.

Date of entry	Song	Peak (weeks at 1)	Weeks
15-Nov-1974	I Shot The Sheriff	9	10
		Total hits	1
		Total weeks	10

Biggest climber awards	1
Star rater climbs	1
Biggest fallers	1
Weeks with oldest in the charts	0
Longest run in the charts (weeks)	10
Weeks with more than 1 in the charts	0
Biggest gap between hits (weeks)	0
Top 30 points ranking	825
Top 20 points ranking	=817
Top 30 points	174
Top 20 points	74

As far as I can tell, Clapton features on the following George Harrison tracks:

Date of entry	Song	Peak (weeks at 1)	Weeks
05-Mar-1971	My Sweet Lord	3	11
02-Apr-1971	What Is Life	4	12
14-Mar-1975	Ding Dong	20	1
03-Mar-1988	Got My Mind Set On You	5	20
		Total hits	4
		Total weeks	44

Total chart involvement:

Number of hits	5
Weeks	54