This morning while running errands, I heard Eric Clapton’s 1974 cover of the song, Please Be with Me, for the first time. Despite the fact I was aware that the late Duane Allman’s daughter, Galadrielle Allman, recently released a memoir about her father of the same name (Please Be with Me-A Song for My Father) I did not realize Allman’s connection to the song.
The song was the first tune written by Scott Boyer when he arrived in Muscle Shoals, Alabama in 1970. Above is Boyer performing it, from a couple of years ago.
But Boyer once belonged to a band named Cowboy, which caught the attention of Allman around 1971. In addition to helping get Cowboy signed to Capricorn Records, he contributed to Cowboy’s recording of Please Be with Me (as revealed in the following YouTube) in 1971 (the same year Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident).
Finally, in 1974, Clapton recorded it, one would assume partially in tribute to his late friend, Allman.
