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The Muse Who Inspired Rock’s Greatest Love Songs
- Catherine Talbert
- Sep 29
- 4 min read
It’s the most notorious love triangle in music history. On one side, Eric Clapton. On the other, George Harrison. Between them stood Pattie Boyd, the model and style icon whose beauty helped define the 1960s and 70s.
Boyd found herself at the center of a painful love story that would inspire some of the greatest songs ever written. Her name is forever linked with three classics: Harrison’s Something (1969), Clapton’s Layla (1970), and Wonderful Tonight (1977).
1964–1966: George and Pattie
Boyd first met the Beatles when she was cast in their 1964 film A Hard Day’s Night. She instantly connected with Harrison, the famously “quiet” Beatle. “He was quite shy, like me. I think that’s why we got on,” she later recalled. After two years of dating, they married in January 1966, though Harrison’s grueling tour schedule often kept them apart.
“George was so adorable when he was away,” Boyd remembered. “He missed me, and I missed him terribly, and he would write amazing letters and wonderful postcards.”
1969: Something
Verse 1:
Something in the way she moves / Attracts me like no other lover, / Something in the way she woos me.
Chorus:
I don't want to leave her now, / You know I believe and how.
This became my favorite Beatles song when I first heard it at around 13. Its rawness and simplicity make it timeless. It’s one of the greatest love songs precisely because it never explicitly mentions love, however, the feeling is woven into the words and chords. Frank Sinatra even famously called Something his favorite Beatles song and “the greatest love song of the past 50 years.”
Harrison’s devotion to Boyd inspired the song, released on Abbey Road in 1969. Yet even as he wrote his most tender ballad, their marriage was under strain. Harrison was increasingly consumed by music and spirituality, while his numerous and often very public affairs created deep rifts.
1970–1973: Clapton’s Obsession and Layla
George and Eric first met at the Beatles’ Christmas show in 1964, bonding over guitars. By the late ’60s, Clapton was a regular guest at the Harrisons’ Surrey home. Unbeknownst to George, his best friend was falling hopelessly in love with Pattie.
Rejected by Boyd, Clapton poured his obsession into music. His 1970 double album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs with Derek and the Dominos was a thinly veiled declaration of love. The searing title track became one of rock’s great ballads of unrequited passion, gaining legendary status after its 1972–73 re-release.
Chorus:
Layla, you’ve got me on my knees / Layla, I’m begging, darling, please / Layla, darling, won’t you ease my worried mind
Verse 2:
Tried to give you consolation / Your old man had let you down / Like a fool, I fell in love with you / You turned my whole world upside down
My stepdad, a Clapton fan and guitarist himself, introduced me to Layla. He also showed me Goodfellas, probably when I was way too young. It’s still one of my favorite films, with one of the best soundtracks of all time. The haunting piano exit of Layla plays over a montage of mob murders, pairing delicate beauty with brutal imagery. That scene forever changed how I hear the song.
On the same album, Clapton also wrote Bell Bottom Blues for Boyd, a plea as desperate as Layla:
Verse 2:
It's all wrong, but it's alright / The way that you treat me, baby / Once I was strong, but I lost the fight / You won't find a better loser
Chorus:
Do you want to see me crawl across the floor to you? / Do you want to hear me beg you to take me back? / I'd gladly do it because / I don't want to fade away / Give me one more day, please / I don't want to fade away / In your heart I want to stay
Though not as famous as the others, it remains one of my favorite songs.
1977: Divorce and Wonderful Tonight
By the mid-1970s, Boyd and Harrison’s marriage had collapsed. His affairs and emotional distance led to their divorce in 1977. That same year, Clapton gifted Harrison the painting La jeune fille au bouquet by Emile Théodore Frandsen — the artwork used on the Layla album cover, a symbolic gesture tied to Boyd.
That same year, Clapton wrote Wonderful Tonight:
Verse 1:
And then she asks me, ‘Do I look alright?’ / And I say, ‘Yes, you look wonderful tonight.'
Bridge:
I feel wonderful / Because I see the love light in your eyes / And the wonder of it all / Is that you just don't realize how much I love you
The song’s gentle intimacy stood in stark contrast to the desperate yearning of Layla.
Wonderful Tonight had always floated through my life on the radio or in movies. But I didn’t really listen closely until a few years ago, when I had become a serious George Harrison fan and learned the backstory of the Boyd-Harrison-Clapton triangle. Suddenly, the song carried new meaning. Its beauty is undeniable, but I also hear an undercurrent of insecurity, like Clapton never seems fully convinced he deserves her.
1979: Clapton and Boyd Marry
Two years after her divorce, Boyd married Clapton in 1979. Remarkably, Harrison gave his blessing and even served as best man, jokingly calling Clapton his “husband-in-law.”
Aftermath and Legacy
Clapton and Boyd’s marriage ended in 1989, but the music born from her presence still defines an era.
Pattie Boyd was more than a muse; she was an artist in her own right, a model, photographer, and style icon who helped shape the visual and emotional landscape of the 1960s and ’70s.
Just as enduring was the friendship between Clapton and Harrison. Harrison’s forgiveness, far from ordinary, reflected his deep spiritual commitments: rather than clinging to anger or loss, he chose acceptance and even friendship, standing as best man at Boyd and Clapton’s wedding and staying close with both until his death.
It's a complicated love story, immortalized in some of the greatest songs ever written.
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