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Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me
Wonderful Tonight George Harrison Eric Clapton and Me
Author: Pattie Boyd
An iconic figure of the 1960s and ?70s, Pattie Boyd breaks a forty-year silence in Wonderful Tonight, and tells the story of how she found herself bound to two of the most addictive, promiscuous musical geniuses of the twentieth century and became the most famous muse in the history of rock and roll. — She met the Beatles in 1964 when she was cas...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780307393845
ISBN-10: 0307393844
Publication Date: 8/28/2007
Pages: 320
Rating:
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
 52

3.5 stars, based on 52 ratings
Publisher: Harmony
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback
Members Wishing: 1
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me on + 4 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 16
This book is very poorly written. The book's timeline is confusing and her story is disjointed. Pun intended. I think the writers, Pattie Boyd and Penny Junor, were using the same substances that Pattie, George and Eric used in previous decades. The only good things about this book are the photos and the gossip.
DaisyDee avatar reviewed Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me on + 5 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 8
While it was an interesting read, it was difficult to follow. The beginning while talking about her childhood, showed emotion and you could feel for her. After that she just rambles on, throws out so many names and places that it is hard to keep track of where you are in the book. A lot about George Harrison and Eric Clapton seemed to be written without emotion. I did not know that Bell Bottom Blues was also written for her. She speaks of how Clapton handed her a pair of bell bottoms and told her he wrote the song for her... then just goes into something else. Just no emotion there at all. Holy cow.. If someone like George Harrison or Eric Clapton wrote a song for me, I would be gushing over how this made me feel. There were a lot of good insights in this book, but she jumped around so much half the time I had no idea what she was talking about and had to go back and forth to follow.
dazeerae avatar reviewed Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me on + 55 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
Pattie Boyd's memoir is full of famous names, places, and events, but there is so much that is lacking. There is a disjointed nature to her writing; she includes some of the oddest details which add nothing to the overall story. Her life choices boggle the mind. She repeatedly puts up with drug abuse and infidelities by George Harrison and Eric Clapton. After witnessing the effects of heroin on Eric and her sister, Pattie impulsively decides to try some of her sister's stash in the airport bathroom before their flight, a trip that had been planned as a means of weaning her sister off heroin. For a woman who inspired three of the greatest love songs ever written (Something, Wonderful Tonight, and Layla), Pattie comes off as quite vacuous.
reviewed Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me on + 34 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
My favorite all time musicians: George Harrison and Eric Clapton. Pattie Boyd was married to both. So obviously, I absolutely loved this book. What a fascinating life she lead with them and since she was with them. So fun to read. Great photos too.
DaisyDee avatar reviewed Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me on + 5 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
While it was an interesting read, it was difficult to follow. The beginning while talking about her childhood, showed emotion and you could feel for her. After that she just rambles on, throws out so many names and places that it is hard to keep track of where you are in the book. A lot about George Harrison and Eric Clapton seemed to be written without emotion. I did not know that Bell Bottom Blues was also written for her. She speaks of how Clapton handed her a pair of bell bottoms and told her he wrote the song for her... then just goes into something else. Just no emotion there at all. Holy cow.. If someone like George Harrison or Eric Clapton wrote a song for me, I would be gushing over how this made me feel. There were a lot of good insights in this book, but she jumped around so much half the time I had no idea what she was talking about and had to go back and forth to follow.
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perryfran avatar reviewed Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me on + 1223 more book reviews
Pattie Boyd was a model working in London in the 1960s and was fortunate enough to be cast as a school girl in the movie Hard Days Night where she met, fell in love with, and ended up marrying George Harrison of The Beatles. This thrust her into the heyday of 60s rock and roll and especially into Beatlemania. As the years progressed, she became less infatuated with George and left him for Eric Clapton who she also married thus becoming the wife of two of rock's icons. Boyd inspired Harrison's song "Something", and Clapton's songs "Layla", "Bell Bottom Blues" and "Wonderful Tonight".

This memoir by Boyd provided a lot of insights into both Harrison and Clapton including the good and the darker sides of both. Both Harrison and Clapton were brilliant musicians but they also drank, used drugs, and were unfaithful to Pattie. Clapton was especially portrayed as a really offensive person who was an alcoholic and kept Pattie away from him so he could have affairs with other women. I know in recent years Clapton has been vilified because of some racist comments he has made and also because of his anti-vaccine stance during Covid.

Boyd also includes in the memoir her life before and after these marriages including growing up in Kenya, the divorce of her parents, and her early modeling career. Later she also became quite well known for her photography, especially her photos of musicians during the 1960s. But her story often meanders and she throws in a lot of information about her trips to various locations around the world, fixing up houses with descriptions of the furniture, her forays into cooking, etc. that don't really provide any meaningful content to her relationships. Overall, I did like that the memoir gave a first hand look into the lives of some of the great rock legends of the 60s, especially the Beatles, but it also was very disjointed and I often got confused trying to keep track of some of the people mentioned -- Pattie had a tendency to throw out a lot of first names throughout the memoir that I could not really remember who they were, family members, friends, other musicians, or ?? Only a mild recommendation for this one.
Snoopygirl avatar reviewed Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me on + 12 more book reviews
An interesting memoir that gives perspective on life in the 60's and beyond. Pattie Boyd had a turbulent life that was captivating to read about.


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