Behind the Sun (Eric Clapton album)
Behind the Sun | ||||
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Studio album by Eric Clapton | ||||
Released | 11 March 1985 | |||
Recorded | 1984 | |||
Genre | Rock, pop rock, hard rock | |||
Length | 49:54 | |||
Label | Duck / Warner Bros. | |||
Producer | Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Ted Templeman, Lenny Waronker | |||
Eric Clapton chronology | ||||
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Professional ratings | |
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Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Robert Christgau | (C–)[2] |
Rolling Stone | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Kerrang! | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Behind the Sun is the ninth studio album by English guitarist Eric Clapton, released in 1985. The title of the album comes from a line from Muddy Waters's "Louisiana Blues". It is also Clapton's first collaborative project with Phil Collins.
Contents
Background and recording
After nearly a decade of Clapton's guitar playing taking a back seat to his singing/songwriting, this album featured more guitar work by Clapton since the Cream era of the 1960s. The album features synthesizers and drum machines played by Phil Collins, Ted Templeman, Peter Robinson, Michael Omartian, James Newton Howard, Chris Stainton and Greg Phillinganes, as well as Clapton's Roland guitar synthesizer on the 9th track, Never Make You Cry. Bassists Donald Duck Dunn from Booker T. & the MG's and Nathan East from the smooth jazz quartet Fourplay also played on the sessions.
In his autobiography, Clapton remembers the 1984 session pleasantly: "The whole thing is going so great, I hope it never stops." However, his troubled marriage with Pattie Boyd became the subject matter for most of his original material: She's Waiting, Same Old Blues and Just Like a Prisoner all contain extended guitar solos by Clapton. It was during this period that Pattie left him "and it was eventually decided that we should have a trial separation." Clapton assuaged his pain by writing the song Behind the Sun featuring only his guitar & vocals and Phil Collins' synthesizer, which became the final song on the album.
This was also Clapton's first collaboration with songwriter Jerry Lynn Williams. Warner looked critically at this follow-up to the Money and Cigarettes album, which did not sell well and was Clapton's first for the label. The Phil Collins-produced Behind the Sun, in the fall of 1984—the first version submitted—was rejected by the label, insisting that he record several new songs written by Jerry Williams, backed by Los Angeles session players. The label put the project under the auspices of veteran company producers Lenny Waronker and Ted Templeman. Warner then emphasised the new tracks, releasing two of them, "Forever Man" (which reached the Top 40) and "See What Love Can Do," as singles. The resulting album, not surprisingly, was somewhat disjointed, though the company may have been correct in thinking that the album as a whole was competent without being very exciting in response to the original line-up of songs for the album because they wanted the album to have more hit single material, Clapton agreed to their terms, but asked them to provide some "hits" and record the songs with their own producer and musicians: "They sent me three songs by a Texas songwriter – Forever Man, Something's Happening and See What Love Can Do – and they were good." The sessions featured Toto guitarist Steve Lukather and former drummer Jeff Porcaro, as well as Clapton's long-time collaborators, drummer Jamie Oldaker, bassist Nathan East and keyboardist Greg Phillinganes, who officially joined Toto in 2005.
Promotion
The Behind the Sun tour was featured at the first Live Aid concert in 1985 where "She's Waiting" was performed along with "White Room" and "Layla". The video for "Forever Man" became an MTV favorite, featuring an accident where one of the cameras falls off the dolly. "Same Old Blues" was resurrected for the "After Midnight" tour and the Montserrat charity show in 1988 and 1997, with Mark Knopfler on rhythm guitar; Clapton resurrected "She's Waiting" for his 1992 world tour. Clapton came to sit in with Paul Shaffer to promote the album on Late Night with David Letterman in 1985. Letterman was impressed by the songs on the album joking to Clapton if it would be alright for him, if Letterman would sing "Forever Man".[5]
Track listing
- "She's Waiting" – 4:55 (Eric Clapton, Peter Robinson)
- "See What Love Can Do" – 3:58 (Jerry Lynn Williams)
- "Same Old Blues" – 8:15 (Clapton)
- "Knock on Wood" – 3:19 (Eddie Floyd, Steve Cropper)
- "Something's Happening" – 3:23 (Williams)
- "Forever Man" – 3:13 (Williams)
- "It All Depends" – 5:05 (Clapton)
- "Tangled in Love" – 4:11 (Marcy Levy, Richard Feldman)
- "Never Make You Cry" – 6:06 (Clapton, Phil Collins)
- "Just Like a Prisoner" – 5:29 (Clapton)
- "Behind the Sun" – 2:13 (Clapton)
Outtakes
- "Loving Your Lovin'" – Released on the Wayne's World movie soundtrack
- "Heaven Is One Step Away" – Released on the Back to the Future movie soundtrack and later on Crossroads Box Set
- "Too Bad" – Released on Crossroads Box Set
- "Jailbait" – Released as B-Side of She's Waiting Single
- "You Don't Know Like I Know" – Released in Australia only
- "One Jump Ahead of the Storm" – Unissued
Personnel
- Eric Clapton – guitars, vocals, Roland guitar synthesizer
- Lindsey Buckingham – guitar
- Phil Collins – synthesizer, percussion, drums, background vocals, Fender Rhodes, Simmons drums
- James Newton Howard – synthesizer
- Marcy Levy – background vocals
- Jerry Lynn Williams – background vocals
- Lenny Castro – percussion
- Ray Cooper – percussion
- Donald "Duck" Dunn – bass
- Nathan East – bass, background vocals
- Lee Herschberg – engineer
- Nick Launay – engineer
- Steve Lukather – guitar
- Shaun Murphy – background vocals
- Michael Omartian – synthesizer
- Jamie Oldaker – drums, background vocals
- Jeff Porcaro – drums (on tracks 2 & 6)
- Greg Phillinganes – synthesizer, background vocals
- John "J.R." Robinson – drums
- J. Peter Robinson – synthesizer
- Chris Stainton – synthesizer, piano, organ, Fender Rhodes
- Ted Templeman – percussion
Chart performance
Weekly charts
Chart (1985) | Peak position |
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Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[6] | 30 |
Canadian Albums (RPM)[7] | 10 |
Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)[8] | 2 |
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[9] | 15 |
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[10] | 14 |
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[11] | 21 |
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[12] | 5 |
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[13] | 10 |
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[14] | 3 |
UK Albums (OCC)[15] | 8 |
US Billboard 200[16] | 34 |
Certifications
Region | Certification | Sales/shipments |
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Norway (IFPI Norway)[17] | Silver | 25,000 |
United States (RIAA)[18] | Platinum | 1,457,698[19] |
Summaries | ||
Worldwide (IFPI) | 2,500,000[19] | |
*sales figures based on certification alone |
References
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- ↑ "Austriancharts.at – Eric Clapton – Behind the Sun" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved November 28, 2015.
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- ↑ "Officialcharts.de – Eric Clapton – Behind the Sun". GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved November 28, 2015.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ "Charts.org.nz – Eric Clapton – Behind the Sun". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 28, 2015.
- ↑ "Norwegiancharts.com – Eric Clapton – Behind the Sun". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 28, 2015.
- ↑ "Swedishcharts.com – Eric Clapton – Behind the Sun". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 28, 2015.
- ↑ "Swisscharts.com – Eric Clapton – Behind the Sun". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 28, 2015.
- ↑ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved November 28, 2015.
- ↑ "Eric Clapton – Chart history" Billboard 200 for Eric Clapton. Retrieved November 28, 2015.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ 19.0 19.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- EngvarB from September 2013
- Use dmy dates from September 2013
- Music infoboxes with deprecated parameters
- Certification Table Entry usages for Norway
- Certification Table Entry usages for United States
- Certification Table Entry usages for unsupported region
- Eric Clapton albums
- 1985 albums
- Albums produced by Ted Templeman
- Albums produced by Lenny Waronker
- Albums produced by Phil Collins
- Warner Bros. Records albums