Wonderful every night

It's a song that means a lot to many, Sasha Thomas explores Eric Clapton's 'Wonderful Tonight' and Tony Bacon takes a look at the Martin that made it

There are songs that capture a moment in time. They conjure an emotion that stays with you. To hear the song again, no matter where you are, or how much time has passed, can feel like you’re being transported back to a particular moment in your life. It is this that makes some songs so special. The music and lyrics combine to speak to something personal to the listener. You feel as though something has been expressed that speaks directly to you – your feelings have been vocalised and set in place within a song for all to hear.

There are many people who feel this way about Eric Clapton’s Wonderful Tonight. Undoubtedly, it is one of his most famous and most popular songs. But just a look at the emotional outpouring on YouTube – commenting on both the original version and its countless covers – shows that for many this is a song they see as their song.

Be it a school prom, a first kiss, a wedding dance, or the funeral of a loved one, Wonderful Tonight is a song that has captured generations of personal memories. It is considered to be one of the most romantic song of all time. It has also crossed numerous generations. Fans of the TV show Friends will recognise it from the season six finale, when Chandler and Monica finally get engaged, the song playing as the pair slow dance together in the candle-lit apartment.

It was a personal song for Clapton too. He wrote Wonderful Tonight in 1976 while waiting for his then-girlfriend Pattie Boyd to get ready for a party. Now, Eric Clapton’s 1974 000-28 Martin acoustic guitar, upon which he wrote the hit song, will be offered in Bonhams’ Rock, Pop & Film auction on 12 June in Knightsbridge.

It is a fitting guitar for Clapton to write such a personal and popular song upon. A fan of country singer Don Williams, Clapton was keen to write something in a similar style. “We talked about how beautifully simple his lyrics were, each song telling a story about everyday happenings,” wrote Pattie Boyd in her autobiography, Wonderful Today. “Eric had been thinking of writing something similar and had already worked on some music for it. Suddenly, as I was flinging dresses on and off, inspiration struck. When I finally got downstairs and asked the inevitable question, ‘Do I look all right?’, he played me what he'd written.”

The guitar also has a testament to the other great muse for Clapton: a sticker reading ‘She's in Love with a Rodeo Man’, in reference to the Don Williams song.

“The guitar was a witness to his then very rock and roll life”

Known for his solo work as well as the time he spent with bands like The Yardbirds and Cream, Clapton made this Martin his primary guitar during the seventies. He even named it once as his “best friend”,  a rare constant for the turbulent life of a rock star. “That guitar went everywhere with me,” he said. Another personal touch of Clapton’s presence is the trademark burn marks on the headstock, caused by his habit of wedging his cigarettes under the strings whilst he was playing. The guitar was a witness to his then very rock and roll life.

He used it extensively for writing, recording, and live performances until parting ways with it for a charitable auction in 1999, in aid of his Crossroads Centre. Clapton noted that, “During the auction, the guys were all around me, and I felt myself starting to cry.”

A musician’s attachment to their instrument is not too dissimilar to the attachment one might feel towards a song. The sense that it sums up a time in our life, a partner that can be always by your side. It is not something you ever really let go of, but then there is always that song that brings it all back. One could easily imagine that for Clapton, Wonderful Tonight brings back many memories of the guitar on which he wrote the song, waiting for his girlfriend to get ready.

Sasha Thomas is Senior Press Officer at Bonhams

Martin made

Eric Clapton's lifetime love affair? Martin Guitars, writes Tony Bacon

It’s February 1968, and Eric Clapton has a few days off from touring with Cream in California. David Crosby has invited him to a picnic at Mama Cass’s place in Laurel Canyon, and there Eric is confronted with the mesmerising sight and sound of Joni Mitchell sitting on the lawn playing a Martin guitar.

Eric has his Guild acoustic with him but spends a long time watching Joni play, spellbound by her songs—her first album is weeks away from release—and the open tunings she uses. There’s much about her style and approach for the visiting Englishman to absorb, and much to admire about the sound and tone of her lovely Martin acoustic.

It’s tempting to conclude that this is the moment when Eric decides he must acquire a Martin of his own. If it is, then it marks the start of his long, satisfying, and creatively rewarding relationship with C.F. Martin & Co.

Just a year or two after that revelatory audience with Joni, Eric acquired a 1966 000-28 that Mike Longworth at Martin had ‘converted’ to the much fancier 45 style, with a good deal of extra inlay work. Eric bought the converted 000-28/45, as it’s known, at George Gruhn’s GTR guitar store in Nashville, probably in 1970.

Martin’s model names usually consist of two parts that indicate body size and decorative style. The 000-size body—for aficionados a ‘triple-oh’—is a compact, narrow-waisted shape measuring about 15 inches at its widest. Style 28 is plain compared to some of Martin’s more ornately decorated guitars, instead bearing tasteful concentric rings at the soundhole and a ‘chain-link’ stripe on the rear.

This Martin served Eric as his primary acoustic guitar until he found his 1974 000-28.

In his autobiography, published in 2007, Eric describes it as “my main guitar during the ’70s”. Five years later, in Six String Stories, he provides a little more detail. “This was a touring hotel-room guitar,” Eric writes, “and I played it on stage during the 1970s. It was a working instrument and probably my best friend at the time. It is a 000-28, the basic model without any inlay. It very much suited my way of looking at the world at that point.”

There’s no evidence to pinpoint where and exactly when  he acquired the ’74 000-28, although some unsupported reports have him once again visiting Gruhn’s store in Nashville. By the time Eric bought it, the guitar had a non-standard bridge but otherwise was unmodified. Eric later added a “Rodeo Man” sticker along the upper side of the body as well as a soundhole pickup.

Martin’s records show that production of the guitar began on December 26th 1974. Photos from live shows indicate he did not play an acoustic on stage during his various tours in 1975—and the first sighting comes the following year at an outdoor gig in July at the Crystal Palace Bowl in London. Eric used his ’74 Martin often in the years that followed and kept it until sold in 1999 at his Crossroads auction.

“It is a 000-28, the basic model without any inlay. It very much suited my way of looking at the world”

When Eric played a couple of Martin 000s—his ’66 000-28/45 and a ’39 000-42—during an Unplugged performance for MTV in 1992, it helped a resurgence of interest not only in acoustic-flavoured music but also in Eric’s use of Martins. This prompted Martin to produce in 1995 the first of a series of signature-edition models in partnership with Eric, the 000-42EC, in a limited run of 461 guitars that were quickly snapped up.

Dick Boak was a mainstay at C.F. Martin & Co and for many years spearheaded and managed the firm’s dealings with famous artists, including Eric among many others. In Dick’s 2003 book Martin Guitar Masterpieces he explains the appeal of a 000 and how Eric’s relationship with Martin focussed attention on this type of acoustic guitar.

Dick says that the association with Eric was, of course, a factor in the success of the signature models that they worked on together. “But the fact is that these guitars are indeed as special as the performer that inspired them,” he writes. “There is something magical in the expressiveness of a short-scaled Martin 000. The strings are looser and they can be pushed further than their long-scaled OM counterpart. The tonal balance and visual integrity are the result of specifications that were totally uncompromised, and it shows in every one of the guitars.”

In 1996, Martin introduced the 000-28EC. It has remained in the Martin guitar catalogue to this day. According to Dick, Eric was surprised to discover how this more affordable signature model compared to Martin’s higher-end offerings. “On the phone one day,” Dick reports, “he relayed that his 000-28s were ‘utilitarian in the very best sense of the word’. For someone so immersed in the blues, ‘utilitarian’ can be a very good thing.”

Tony Bacon is a British author and journalist who writes about guitars and guitarists. His books include Legendary Guitars and Electric Guitars: Design & Invention. More info at tonybacon.co.uk.

Tony would like to thank Jason Ahner, Walter Carter, and Christian Larsen for help with this piece.

Rock, Pop & Film auction | 12 June, London, Knightsbridge

For enquiries, contact Claire Tole-Moir on claire.tolemoir@bonhams.com or +44 0 20 7393 3984.