Britain is a country where old men say "Happy Birthday" to Pattie Boyd who inspired George and Eric to write and play love songs to her when all of them were young

'Pattie', who is 75 years old today, as born Patricia Anne Boyd in the penultimate year of the Second World War, in 1944, in Somerset. Sixty-three years later she would publish her autobiographical book, 'Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me', but back in the early 1960s, when she was in her late teens, she took her first step towards the book when she moved with her family to London. She was working as a 'shampoo girl' in Elizabeth Arden’s salon, when a client from the fashion industry spotted her potential and
she was launched into the world of modelling. She went on to work in London, New York and Paris and appeared in the British  and Italian editions of Vogue Magazine, as well as in several commercials. Then in 1964, when she was cast in a very small part in the Beatles’ film, 'A Hard Day’s Night', she met George Harrison.

In the romance which followed, according to Pattie, who was already in a relationship photographer Eric Swayne, George apparently said : “Will you marry me? Well, if you won’t marry me, will you have dinner with me tonight?” Two years later, she sealed her affair with George in a wedding with Paul McCartney as their best man. His love for her apparently inspired his "Something" which appeared on the Beatles' 1969 album, 'Abbey Road'. It drew praise from the other Beatles and their producer, George Martin, with John Lennon saying that it was the best song on the album.

"You're asking me will my love grow

I don't know, I don't know

You stick around now it may show

I don't know, I don't know"

During the following period, when George indulged in alcohol and drug overuse as well as numerous affairs, he became a close friend of 'Derek and the Dominoes' guitarist, Eric Clapton, writing music and performing with him as seen here in 1969. When Pattie received a letter in which someone, who signed themselves as 'E' and declared his love for her, she thought little of it. She assumed that she just had a secret admirer, until one evening at a party in Eric' s manager’s house, when he, who she thought of as a friend, showed up and asked her if she had received his letter ?  Shocked, but at the same time flattered, Pattie couldn't hide the unfolding melodrama from George, who saw what was happening at the party. Asked to decide who she was going to go home with that night ? she decided upon George and subsequently said : “I held marriage very dearly, but felt torn at that moment.”

Deeply infatuated with Pattie, when she spurned his advances, Eric's unrequited affections prompted most of the material for the Dominos' 1970 album, 'Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.'   'Layla' was inspired by the classical poet of Persian literature, Nizami Ganjavi's  'The Story of Layla and Majnun' which had profoundly moved Eric with its tale of a young man who fell hopelessly in love with a beautiful, unavailable woman and who went crazy because he could not marry her.

"Layla, you got me on my knees

Layla, begging, darling, please

Layla, darling, won't you ease my worried mind?

I tried to give you consolation

When your old man let you down

Like a fool I fell in love with you

You turned my whole world upside down"

In 1974, Pattie decided to separate from George due to his endless infidelities and described the last year of her marriage with him as “fueled by alcohol and intolerable” but before this she had refused Eric’s advances and he had descended into heroin addiction and deep depression.

Having now started her relationship with Eric, he wrote 'Wonderful Tonight' for her on 7 September 1976, while waiting for her to get ready to attend Paul and Linda McCartney's annual 'Buddy Holly Party'.

"I feel wonderful because I see

The love light in your eyes

And the wonder of it all

Is that you just don't realize how much I love you"

In 1979, she decided to move in with him and then married him. Тhe period of love’s delusion and sweet delight was soon over, though, when the couple faced marriage struggles. Regular drug and alcohol abuse, as well as Eric’s many affairs, provoked Pattie to leave him in 1987 and divorce him in 1989. In a recent interview, when asked : "who was her greatest love ?" she said, “That is so difficult", but chose George, "He will always stay with me."

Pattie interviewed in 2012 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-J1c9qQYhU

Of 'Wonderful Tonight' she said  : "For years it tore at me. To have inspired Eric, and George before him, to write such music was so flattering. 'Wonderful Tonight' was the most poignant reminder of all that was good in our relationship, and when things went wrong it was torture to hear it."