Wonderful Tonight is quite simply one of the most beautiful guitar-driven love ballads I’ve ever heard. It’s stunning how the lyrics and music, particularly that ghostly guitar riff, so perfectly capture the romance and intimacy of the evening, the anticipation of the big occasion and the profound feelings between the couple.
You feel privy to it all, to the point that the song carries the aroma of perfume and cologne in the air as you hear it. It’s insider access, total, and it’s quite the musical accomplishment.
Also, the ‘bridge’ is to die for. When he sings, you just don’t realize / how much I love you, it always makes the hairs on my arms stand up on end.
Wonderful Tonight was written in 1976 for Pattie Boyd while Clapton was waiting for her to get ready to attend Paul and Linda McCartney’s annual Buddy Holly Week event. Boyd had married George Harrison in 1966, but they divorced in 1977. She then married their mutual friend Eric Clapton in 1979, but they ended up divorcing in 1989.
All good things come to an end, which seems to be a common theme here of late. The song is mentioned in Boyd’s 2007 autobiographical book Wonderful Today.
The song peaked at number 16 on the US Billboard on 15 July 1978, spending seven weeks in the Top 40. I think I have heard this song more than any other Clapton song in my life.
I first heard it at the Academy when I was 18 years old. My section under officer, ‘Hilly’, was a huge Springsteen fan and we often shared music, and I believe this is one I got from him. So he deserves a high-five and, on the flip side, to put it mildly…
[Verse 1]
It’s late in the evening, she’s wondering what clothes to wear
She puts on her makeup and brushes her long blonde hair
And then she asks me, “Do I look all right?”
And I say, “Yes, you look wonderful tonight”
[Verse 2]
We go to a party and everyone turns to see
This beautiful lady that’s walking around with me
And then she asks me, “Do you feel all right?”
And I say, “Yes, I feel wonderful tonight”
[Bridge]
I feel wonderful because I see the love light in your eyes
And the wonder of it all is that you just don’t realize
How much I love you
[Verse 3]
It’s time to go home now and I’ve got an aching head
So I give her the car keys and she helps me to bed
And then I tell her, as I turn out the light
I say, “My darling, you were wonderful tonight
Oh, my darling, you were wonderful tonight”
References:
1. Wonderful Tonight – Wikipedia
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
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