The Truth About The Meaning Behind Eric Clapton's Wonderful Tonight

Eric Clapton's lyrics for "Wonderful Tonight" were very much rooted in reality. "One night, unusually, Eric and I were going out, but I couldn't decide what to wear," Pattie Boyd recalled in her 2007 autobiography, aptly named "Wonderful Tonight," adding, "I was taking a very long time to do my makeup and hair, putting on one dress, then another and another, throwing them all into a pile on the floor. Poor Eric had been ready for hours and was waiting patiently."

At the time, Clapton was a big fan of the country singer Don Williams. "We talked about how beautifully simple his lyrics were, each song telling a story about everyday happenings," Boyd wrote. "Eric had been thinking of writing something similar and had already worked on some music for it. Suddenly, as I was flinging dresses on and off, inspiration struck. When I finally got downstairs and asked the inevitable question, 'Do I look all right?,' he played me what he'd written."

The rest is rock 'n' roll history. Sadly, the relationship was also history less than a decade later, when Boyd left Clapton in 1987. "I think I was a romantic inspiration to Eric and George because I gave as much as I could to them both, to the detriment of myself," Boyd told The Guardian in 2008. "I was always there for them. Which I think is really what a muse is. You are living your life for somebody else."

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