“Layla (Unplugged)” by Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton wrote "Layla" with Jim Gordon for Derek and the Dominos, and it first surfaced on Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs in 1970. Its story came out of a book Ian Dallas had given him, Nizami Ganjavi's The Story of Layla and Majnun, a tale of a young man driven mad by love that mirrored Clapton's own longing for Pattie Boyd, then married to his friend George Harrison. He and Boyd eventually married.

The Unplugged version strips all that anguish down to acoustic guitars and a laid-back shuffle, trading the original's howl for something wiser and more rueful, like an old flame remembered from a comfortable armchair. It was the second time the song became a hit, two decades after the first, and the acoustic take won the 1993 Grammy for Best Rock Song.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.