Keyboardist Bobby Whitlock died August 10, after a brief illness. He was 77. “How do you express in but a few words the grandness of one man who came from abject poverty in the south to heights unimagined in such a short time?” his wife and collaborator Coco Carmel said in a statement to CBS News. Whitlock played keys for Eric Clapton and George Harrison, and co-founded Derek and the Dominos with Clapton in 1970.
Whitlock was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1948. He came up in the Memphis music scene, learning the organ from Booker T. He became the first white artist signed to Stax Records, according to Rolling Stone. In 1970, Whitlock, Eric Clapton Duane Allman, Carl Radle, and Jim Gordon formed Derek and the Dominos. Whitlock co-wrote half the songs on the band’s Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. Whitlock played piano on the titular song’s second movement, the “Piano Exit.” Originally credited to Gordon, Whitlock insisted the piano riff was composed by Gordon’s ex-girlfriend Rita Coolidge.
Aside from his work with Clapton, Whitlock also contributed to George Harrison’s catalog. He played organ and piano on All Things Must Pass, including “My Sweet Lord.” He also made an uncredited appearance on The Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St. Whitlock released four solo albums, including Raw Velvet with features from Clapton and Harrison.
Derek and the Dominos broke up in 1971 after the death of Allman in a motorcycle crash. Radle died in 1980 of a kidney infection. Gordon was committed to a mental institution after killing his mother with a hammer. He died there in 2023. With Whitlock’s passing, Eric Clapton is now the only living member of Derek and the Dominos.
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