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In the world of rock there are recordings that truly resonate in historical importance and continue to cast an enduring shadow of influence. Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs is one of the most steadfastly revered musical treasures of its era. Its famous title track is still hailed as an essential rock guitar anthem, a signature tune of rock's leading guitar hero, Eric Clapton. Recorded in 1970 by Derek and the Dominos, the group was comprised of Clapton and top American musicians Bobby Whitlock, Carl Radle and Jim Gordon. Layla's music offers a timeless blend of rock, electric blues and Southern gospel influences that has shaped generations of roots-oriented musicians.

Layla showcases the creative singing and songwriting axis formed by Clapton and the Memphis-born Whitlock, who had grown up around the city's legendary Stax Studios. The confluence of their respective experiences, British blues-rock and Southern American R&B, generated a number of gospel-inflected tunes that featured their intertwined voices harmonizing much in the fashion of a rock-world Sam & Dave, and are among the most representative and covered tunes of that era: "Anyday," "Keep On Growing," "Tell the Truth," "I Looked Away" and "Why Does Love Got To Be So Bad."

The sessions also saw the rare coming together of Clapton and Duane Allman: two blues-rock specialists from different sides of the Atlantic. That happened when the Allman Brothers Band, then just breaking into mainstream popularity, performed in Miami on the second night of the recording sessions. The musical encounter resulted in a night full of studio jams, followed by the inclusion of Allman's guitar on most of the album, including standout duels on such blues numbers as "Key To The Highway" and "Have You Ever Loved a Woman?" and the double slide-guitar workout that defines the famous piano coda section of "Layla."

Clapton's profound adoration of the American blues tradition, in all of its forms and styles, is one of the most prominent threads in the musical tapestry that is Layla and Other Love Songs. His choice of blues-based tunes to cover on the album stretches from "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (made famous by Bessie Smith in 1923) and "Key to the Highway" (associated with Big Bill Broonzy, from 1940) to Chuck Willis' plaintive R&B ballad "It's Too Late" (1956), Freddie King's "Have You Ever Loved A Woman" (1960), and Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing" (1967). Colored 180g vinyl 2LP-set.