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Released: July 1974

Rating: 4.126 (average of 17 ratings)

Genre: classic British blues rock

Quotable: --

Album Tracks:

  1. Motherless Children (traditional) [4:53]
  2. Give Me Strength (Clapton) [2:54]
  3. Willie and the Hand Jive (Otis) [3:31]
  4. Get Ready (Clapton/Elliman) [3:47]
  5. I Shot the Sheriff (Marley) [4:25]
  6. I Can’t Hold Out (James) [4:14]
  7. Please Be with Me (Boyer) [3:26]
  8. Let It Grow (Clapton) [5:00]
  9. Steady Rollin’ Man (Johnson) [3:14]
  10. Mainline Florida (Terry) [4:04]

Sales:

sales in U.S. only ½ million
sales in U.K. only - estimated --
sales in all of Europe as determined by IFPI – click here to go to their site. --
sales worldwide - estimated 5 million

Peak:

peak on U.S. Billboard album chart 1 4
peak on U.K. album chart 3

Singles:

  • I Shot the Sheriff (7/13/74) #1 US, #9 UK, #33 RB. Gold single.
  • Willie and the Hand Jive (11/2/74) #10 US

Awards:

Rated one of the top 1000 albums of all time by Dave’s Music Database. Click to learn more.

461 Ocean Boulevard
Eric Clapton
Review:
“461 Ocean Boulevard is Eric Clapton's second studio solo album, arriving after his side project of Derek and the Dominos and a long struggle with heroin addiction. Although there are some new reggae influences, the album doesn't sound all that different from the rock, pop, blues, country, and R&B amalgam of Eric Clapton. However, 461 Ocean Boulevard is a tighter, more focused outing that enables Clapton to stretch out instrumentally. Furthermore, the pop concessions on the album — the sleek production, the concise running times — don't detract from the rootsy origins of the material, whether it's Johnny Otis' Willie and the Hand Jive, the traditional blues Motherless Children, Bob Marley's I Shot the Sheriff, or Clapton's emotional original Let It Grow. With its relaxed, friendly atmosphere and strong bluesy roots, 461 Ocean Boulevard set the template for Clapton's '70s albums. Though he tried hard to make an album exactly like it, he never quite managed to replicate its charms” (Erlewine).

Review Source(s):

Related DMDB Links:

Previous Album: Derek and the Dominos’ ‘Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs’ (1970) Eric Clapton’s DMDB page Next Album: There’s One in Every Crowd (1975)

Last updated March 31, 2008.