{"id":787685,"date":"2026-05-11T00:56:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T00:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/787685\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T00:56:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T00:56:16","slug":"on-this-day-in-1974-eric-clapton-reluctantly-recorded-the-only-us-no-1-of-his-career-inadvertently-infuriating-bob-marley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/787685\/","title":{"rendered":"On This Day in 1974, Eric Clapton Reluctantly Recorded the Only US No. 1 of His Career (Inadvertently Infuriating Bob Marley)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Getting his start playing in a variety of bands around his hometown of Ripley, Surrey, United Kingdom, Eric Clapton took centerstage no matter where he went. Following stints with the Yardbirds and Cream, Clapton scored his first Top 40 solo hit<\/a> in 1970 with a cover of the J.J. Cale track \u201cAfter Midnight\u201d. Many more solo successes would follow, including \u201cLayla\u201d (1971), \u201cLay Down Sally\u201d (1977), and \u201cWonderful Tonight\u201d (also 1977).<\/p>\n

However, none of those songs would ever reach the summit of the Hot 100. To date, Clapton has sent only one song to No. 1 on the U.S. charts and it wasn\u2019t an original. On this day (May 10) in 1974, the three-time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer recorded a cover of \u201cI Shot the Sheriff\u201d, a song released the previous year by reggae phenom Bob Marley and his band the Wailers. Clapton\u2019s rendition would peak at No. 1 in the United States and eclipse the original\u2019s popularity even in Marley\u2019s home country of Jamaica.<\/p>\n

Eric Clapton Mixed Reggae With Soft Rock on Bob Marley Cover<\/p>\n

By some accounts<\/a>, Eric Clapton was reticent to cover \u201cI Shot the Sheriff\u201d out of respect for Marley. However, the 18-time Grammy Award winner claimed in a 1987 interview<\/a> that it was his idea to record the song.<\/p>\n

\u201cBob was the first person I heard singing with a real message, you know? And he was completely unique,\u201d Clapton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a vision\u2026 he was like a prophet, in a way,\u201d added the \u201cTears in Heaven\u201d singer. \u201cVery serious, and it wasn\u2019t just music. He was delivering a message too.\u201d<\/p>\n

[RELATED: Behind the Meaning of \u201cI Shot the Sheriff\u201d by Bob Marley]<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

What Bob Marley Really Thought of This Clapton Cover<\/p>\n

Eric Clapton made Marley\u2019s anthem his own,<\/a> adding blues guitar, keyboards, and more prominent harmonies. The Brit\u2019s version of \u201cI Shot the Sheriff\u201d introduced Marley, and reggae, to a wider audience.<\/p>\n

Within time, Clapton\u2019s rendition had surpassed Marley\u2019s, even in the reggae singer\u2019s home country of Jamaica. This \u201cinfuriated\u201d the \u201cThree Little Birds\u201d crooner, according to a 1985 biography written by Stephen Davis\u2014so much so that he reportedly confronted<\/a> local DJs. It\u2019s worth noting that it\u2019s not believed that Marley was angry at Clapton himself, but rather what he viewed as the industry inequality. <\/p>\n

\u201cClapton\u2019s \u2018I Shot the Sheriff\u2019 was being played every hour on the JBC, while the Wailers\u2019 new single \u2018Knotty Dread\u2019 was never to be heard,\u201d Davis wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Featured image by Michael Putland\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getting his start playing in a variety of bands around his hometown of Ripley, Surrey, United Kingdom, Eric…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":787686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[20829,976,171,46908,975,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-787685","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-1970s","9":"tag-classic-rock","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-eric-clapton","12":"tag-music","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116553225908348372","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}