Remember When Asleep At The Wheel Covered an Eric Clapton Classic?
American Songwriter looks back at Asleep at the Wheel's 1995 album "The Wheel Keeps On Rollin'", their 13th studio release, which included a cover of Eric Clapton's "Lay Down Sally". The retrospective highlights the Texas swing band's long-standing habit of blending original material with covers of older songs, situating this particular track within their broader career pattern.
"Lay Down Sally" was co-written by Clapton with Marcy Levy and George Terry and originally appeared on his 1977 album "Slowhand", becoming a moderate Top 30 country hit and later being covered by Red Sovine and the Jerry Garcia Band before Asleep at the Wheel's version. The same 1995 album also featured a cover of Tex Williams' 1947 song "Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)", alongside three originals written by frontman Ray Benson. The article also notes other notable covers in the band's history, including "Route 66" (1976), "The House Of Blue Lights" and "Roll Poly" (2000, featuring The Chicks), plus their 1975 breakout hit "The Letter That Johnny Walker Read".
- Asleep at the Wheel covered Clapton's "Lay Down Sally" on their 1995 album.
- Clapton co-wrote the 1977 original with Marcy Levy and George Terry.
- The band has a long history of covering classic songs alongside originals.
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Asleep at the Wheel are a long-running Texas swing band, best known for mixing their own songs with covers of older country and rock and roll numbers over a career stretching back to the 1970s. Their frontman, Ray Benson, has steered the group through numerous studio albums, of which "The Wheel Keeps On Rollin'" from 1995 was the thirteenth.
That album included the band's version of "Lay Down Sally", a song Eric Clapton co-wrote with Marcy Levy and George Terry for his 1977 album "Slowhand". It had already had a life beyond Clapton's original recording, having been a country hit and covered by other artists before Asleep at the Wheel took it on.
The wider point of interest is the band's habit of reworking older material as part of their own sound, a pattern seen across their catalogue from "Route 66" in the 1970s to later collaborations such as with The Chicks in 2000.