Song · Eric Clapton
“Behind the Mask” by Eric Clapton
From the album August (1986)
“Behind the Mask” by Eric Clapton appears on 1 radio countdown from 1 station in 2001. It was first released in 1986 on the album August. Its best result is #271 on the Virgin Radio Top 500 Songs of All-Time (December 2001). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #5,466 alternative song of all time.
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"Behind the Mask" sits on August, Eric Clapton's 1986 album, with Phil Collins producing, and the song took the scenic route to get there. It began life with Japan's Yellow Magic Orchestra: Ryuichi Sakamoto first wrote it for a TV commercial, and Chris Mosdell supplied the words later on. Then Michael Jackson got hold of it and cut a demo with new lyrics and melody of his own, only to see it dropped from Thriller when nobody could agree on the royalties.
Clapton's version grows out of that Jackson demo, and Jackson shares the writing credits with Sakamoto and Mosdell. Katie Kissoon and Tessa Niles sing backup. Put out as a single, it went top 20 in some markets.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 271 | Virgin Radio | Virgin Radio Top 500 Songs of All-Time (December 2001) | 500 |
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