It’s arguably the most famous piano coda in rock history, and now the piano that it was performed on is up for sale. The song in question is Derek & The Dominos' Layla, and the piano is a Baldwin grand that, for four decades, was used at Criteria Studios in Miami.
The piano was built in the late 1920s. Eaton & Brennan Auctions, which is handling the sale, assures us that it “embodies the rich, warm sound of that era and has retained its impeccable tone”. It’s also believed to have been used on The Bee Gees’ Saturday Night Fever, and played at other times by Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles.
That piano section from Layla may well be the most famous thing ever recorded on it, though - not to mention the most controversial. It’s credited to Derek & The Dominos drummer Jim Gordon; the story goes that frontman Eric Clapton overheard him playing it in the studio after the first part of Layla had been recorded, and asked if he could use it as a second ‘movement’.
Gordon duly obliged, playing the piano part himself, but multiple sources now claim that he had actually written it with Rita Coolidge, his then girlfriend, the previous year.
Coolidge herself says as much, in fact. In her 2016 memoir, Delta Lady, she wrote: “We played the song for Eric Clapton in England. I remember sitting at the piano in Olympic Studios while Eric listened to me play it. Jim and I left a cassette of the demo, hoping of course that he might cover it.”
She thought little more about it, but when she heard the finished version of Layla - she and Gordon had broken up by this point - she was shocked.
“What they had clearly done was take the song Jim and I had written, jettisoned the lyrics and tacked it to the end of Eric’s song,” she says. “It was almost the same.”
If you take a listen to a recording of the song, which ended up being called Time and was later recorded by Booker T Jones and Coolidge’s sister, Priscilla, we think you’ll agree that she might have a point.
Coolidge’s version of events has been supported by Derek & The Dominos keyboard player Bobby Whitlock. In a 2011 interview with Where’s Eric!, he said: “Jim took the melody from Rita’s song and didn’t give her credit for writing it. Her boyfriend ripped her off. I knew but nobody would listen to or believe me. I have told this story for years.”
So, there you go. The piano that was used to record Layla may soon have a new owner - bidding is open now and it could fetch in excess of $100,000 - but Coolidge is still waiting for the slice of ownership that she believes is rightfully hers.
Jim Gordon, meanwhile, was later jailed for the 1983 murder of his mother. During his trial, the court heard that this came as a result of a psychotic episode associated with undiagnosed schizophrenia. He died in prison in 2023.
