JOHN MAYALL & THE BLUESBREAKERS

+ Eric Clapton

On this day in music history: July 22, 1966 - “Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton” by John Mayall & The Blues Breakers is released. Produced by Mike Vernon, it is recorded at Decca Studios in West Hampstead, London, UK in March 1966. The album is initially planned as a live recording, but the recordings are scrapped and the band record in the studio instead. It is released to great acclaim upon its release in the UK, further cementing Eric Clapton’s reputation as a brilliant lead guitarist, and is regarded as one of the quintessential British blues recordings. Clapton uses his newly acquired (and now legendary) 1960 Les Paul during the sessions. The albums now famous cover photo features the band posed together looking at the camera, with Clapton eyes averted reading a “Beano” comic book. In 2006, Universal Music Group releases a double CD Deluxe Edition of “Blues Breakers” featuring a remastered version of the original album with the original stereo and mono mixes, with the second disc featuring live recordings made for and originally broadcast on the BBC radio program “Saturday Club Sessions” as well as the stand alone single “Lonely Years” and its original B-side “Bernard Jenkins”. Reissued numerous times on vinyl since 2000, it is most recently remastered and reissued as a 180 gram LP by UMe in Europe in 2016. It is also issued as a limited edition blue vinyl pressing by Sundazed Music in 2018, with both releases using the original mono mix. “Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton” peaks at number six on the UK album chart.

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I think we established early on I was a precocious little sod and by at least 13 was walking about with blues classics under my arm, Josh White, Chris Farlowe, Leadbelly, Big Bill Broonzy especially but then I heard this fellah and bought several albums and things I could find in the bargain bins by Mr John Mayall