The other band members were Bobby Whitlock (vocals, keyboard), Jim Gordon (drums, percussion), and Carl Radle (bass).

[citation needed] Having toured with Joe Cocker straight after leaving Delaney & Bonnie, Carl Radle and Jim Gordon reunited with Clapton and Whitlock in England.

Clapton attempted to avoid the limelight under cover of the anonymous "Derek and the Dominos", with whom he played a tour of small clubs in Britain during the first three weeks of August.

"[7] Veteran producer Tom Dowd was at Criteria working on the Allman Brothers Band's second album, Idlewild South, when the studio received a phone call that Clapton was bringing the Dominos to Miami to record.

Jamming together overnight, the two bonded; Dowd reported that they "were trading licks, they were swapping guitars, they were talking shop and information and having a ball – no holds barred, just admiration for each other's technique and facility.

Whitlock also contributed "Thorn Tree in the Garden", while Clapton brought "I Am Yours" (from a poem by Nizami) and "Layla" (with a coda credited to Jim Gordon).

The last track on the album, "Thorn Tree in the Garden", was recorded with Whitlock, Clapton, Allman, Radle and Gordon sitting in a circle around a single microphone.

Bobby Whitlock's version of the story is that the tape was rolling non-stop for the entire session, but that Dowd had taken a lavatory break leaving the faders on the mixer down.

Bobby Whitlock revealed in an interview that while they were staying at Emile Frandsen's house in France in August 1970, he took them to his father's studio just after they had made a mess by having an egg fight.

Clapton also insisted that the image be used unadorned on the ''Layla'' sleeve, with no text added to give either the band's name or the title of the album.

[19][20] Boyd put the painting up for sale at auction at Christie's in February 2024 alongside letters and notes from both Clapton and Harrison, with an estimate of £40-60,000.

[21] Atco Records issued Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs in November 1970 in the United States,[22] with a UK release following in December, on Polydor.

[25] Dowd later rued the difficulty of getting airplay for the songs on US radio,[26] while Shapiro attributes its lack of success in Britain to minimal promotion by Polydor and what he terms "the unrelenting and monotonous Press litany of a post-Cream withdrawal syndrome".

Layla also flopped critically,[17] according to Shapiro: "As with Eric's first solo album, the reviewers liked the guitars-on-fire-stuff … but regarded the [love songs] as little more than fluff.

"[28] Writing in Melody Maker, Roy Hollingworth opined that the songs ranged "from the magnificent to a few lengths of complete boredom", and specified: "We have Hendrix's 'Little Wing' played with such spreading beauty that Jimi would surely have clapped till his hands bled, and then we have 'I Am Yours' … a bossa that novas in pitiful directions."

[29] Writing in Saturday Review magazine, Ellen Sander described it as "pointless and boring" and "a basket case of an album", and said that Clapton had "all but blown his musical credibility".

Grouping the Dominos album with recent releases by Bob Dylan, the Beatles and Stephen Stills, Sander added, "It's [Clapton's] instincts, not his talents, that are out of synch, and he is certainly not alone, nor by any means the worst offender, in depositing garbage into the vault of a guaranteed personal audience.

"[31] Leimbacher found Clapton's singing "always at least adequate, and sometimes quite good" and concluded, "forget any indulgences and filler – it's still one hell of an album.

"[31] In a rave review for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau applauded the contrast of "the high-keyed precision of [Clapton's] guitar" with "the relaxed rocking of Allman/Whitlock/Radle/Gordon".

He wrote in conclusion that, "even though this one has the look of a greedy, lazy, slapdash studio session, I think it may be Eric Clapton's most consistent recording ... one of those rare instances when musicians join together for profit and a lark and come up with a mature and original sound."

Christgau wrote in conclusion: "his meaning is realized at those searing peaks when a pained sense of limits – why does love have to be so sad, I got the bell-bottom blues, Lay-la – is posed against the good times in an explosive compression of form.

Allman never toured with Derek and the Dominos, but made two guest appearances with them: on 1 December 1970 at the Curtis Hixon Hall in Tampa (Soul Mates bootleg LP) and the following day at Onondaga County War Memorial in Syracuse, New York.

[50] Tedeschi Trucks Band covered the album in its entirety on 24 August 2019 at Lockn' with Trey Anastasio of Phish and Doyle Bramhall II sitting in.

In 1993, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab gave the original 1970 stereo master tapes meticulous treatment for the first time and pressed the album on an expensive, limited edition 24kt gold CD.

The two-CD "Deluxe" edition features five previously unreleased tracks, "It's Too Late", "Got to Get Better in a Little While", "Matchbox" (with Carl Perkins) and "Blues Power" (from The Johnny Cash Show) and a jam version of "Got to Get Better in a Little While".