"Bad Love" is a song recorded by British musician

Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is often regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s list o ...

, who co-wrote it with Foreigner's lead guitarist Mick Jones. The track was released in the UK in January 1990 as the first single from Clapton's 1989

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records c ...

Journeyman A journeyman, journeywoman, or journeyperson is a worker, skilled in a given building trade or craft, who has successfully completed an official apprenticeship qualification. Journeymen are considered competent and authorized to work in that fie ...

''. The composition also features drummer

Phil Collins Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English singer, musician, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and lead singer of the rock band Genesis and also has a career as a solo performer. Between 1982 and ...

, who plays

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

and sings harmony background vocals, which was produced by Clapton's then long-time partner Russ Titelman. At the

33rd Annual Grammy Awards The 33rd Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 20, 1991. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. Quincy Jones was the night's biggest winner winning a total of six awards including Album of the Year. Performers ...

, Clapton won an award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. The single release reached various international single music charts and sold a total of 250,000 copies worldwide. A

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devic ...

was released in 1989 to accompany the single release.

Release

"Bad Love" was released as the second US single from Eric Clapton's 1989 studio album ''Journeyman'' in March 1990. However, promotional single releases in the United Kingdom on 7-inch vinyl, and in the United States on a CD single were released in 1989 under license of Warner Bros. Records. For whole of Europe and the United States, the single was released on both 7 and 12 inch vinyl and CD in 1990. The recording was produced by Russ Titelman, who later also produced several albums for Eric Clapton under Reprise and Warner Bros. Records. Other territories in which the single has been released include Australia, Brazil, Japan, Taiwan and Thailand, where it also was released as a B-side to a later single or track of a

compilation album A compilation album comprises tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several performers. If by one artist, then generally the tracks were not originally intended for rel ...

Personnel

The original recording features Clapton playing

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

and singing

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

alongside Phil Collins' drumming and harmony background singing.

Alan Clark Alan Kenneth Mackenzie Clark (13 April 1928 – 5 September 1999) was a British Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), author and diarist. He served as a junior minister in Margaret Thatcher's governments at the Departments of Employment, ...

acts as the

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical inst ...

on the release, which includes

Pino Palladino Giuseppe Henry "Pino" Palladino (born 17 October 1957) is a Welsh musician, songwriter, and record producer. A prolific session bassist, he has played bass for acts such as The Who, the John Mayer Trio, Nine Inch Nails, Gary Numan, Jeff Beck ...

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

. The publishing rights to both the song and release belong to Unichappell Music, Incorporated. While promoting the album during his two-year "Journeyman World Tour" in 1990 and 1991, Clapton performed the song with a different band line-up including

Nathan East Nathan Harrell East (born December 8, 1955) is an American jazz, R&B, and rock bass player and vocalist. With more than 2,000 recordings, East is one of the most recorded bass players in the history of music. East holds a Bachelor of Arts deg ...

on bass guitar,

Greg Phillinganes Gregory Arthur Phillinganes (born May 12, 1956) is an American keyboardist, singer-songwriter, and musical director based in Los Angeles, California. A prolific session musician, Phillinganes has contributed the role of keyboards to numerous alb ...

on keyboards,

Chuck Leavell Charles Alfred Leavell (born April 28, 1952) is an American musician. A member of the Allman Brothers Band throughout their commercial zenith in the 1970s, he subsequently became a founding member of the band Sea Level. He has served as the pri ...

on the

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated ...

, Steve Ferrone on drums,

Ray Cooper Raymond Cooper (born 19 September 1947) is an English musician who has worked as a session and road-tour percussionist. During his career, Cooper has worked and toured with numerous musically diverse bands and artists including Elton John (as ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

, Phil Palmer on rhythm guitar as well as Tessa Niles and

Katie Kissoon Mac and Katie Kissoon are a pop soul duo, consisting of brother and sister Mac Kissoon (born Gerald Farthing, November 11, 1943, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago) and Katie Kissoon (born Katherine Farthing, March 11, 1951, Port of Spain). E ...

on backing vocals. Clapton released a live interpretation of "Bad Love" on his album ''

24 Nights ''24 Nights'' is the fifth live album by Eric Clapton, compiled from 42 concerts performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England, in 1990 and 1991. It was released on 8 October 1991. The cover illustration is by Peter Blake. Backgrou ...

'' with the band line-up mentioned above, released on 8 October 1991. Clapton also released the track on various compilation albums including '' Clapton Chronicles: The Best of Eric Clapton'' (1999), ''

Complete Clapton ''Complete Clapton'' is a greatest hits collection by British rock musician Eric Clapton, released on 9 October 2007 to accompany Clapton's official autobiography. Release The two-disc collection was released on 9 October 2007 to accompany E ...

'' (2007) and ''

Forever Man "Forever Man" is a song from Eric Clapton's 1985 album '' Behind the Sun'', released as the first single of the album. It reached number one on the ''Billboard'' Top Rock Tracks chart, becoming his second single to do so. In total, the single r ...

'' (2015). In total, the song has been released on over 15 albums.

Track listing

Credits

* Eric Clapton – lead vocals, guitar * Phil Palmer – guitar *

– keyboards *

– bass *

– drums, backing and harmony vocals *

– backing vocals * Tessa Niles – backing vocals

Composition

In an interview with his official fan club "Where's Eric!", Clapton remembered how the song came about: "Warner Bros. wanted another " Layla". I thought, well, if you sit down and write a song in a formatted way, it's not so hard. You think, 'What was "Layla" ? A fiery intro modulated into the first verse and chorus with a riff around it. I had this stuff in my head, so I just juggled it around, and Mick Jones (of the group Foreigner) came in to help tidy up. He was the one who said 'You should put a "

Badge A badge is a device or accessory, often containing the insignia of an organization, which is presented or displayed to indicate some feat of service, a special accomplishment, a symbol of authority granted by taking an oath (e.g., police and ...

" middle in there'. So, we did that. Although it sounds like a cold way of doing it, it actually took on its own life". The song consists of two verses and one chorus which is sung between the two verses and three times after the second verse ended. The chorus is in the scale of D Dorian and the solo in D Mixolydian. The verses are played and sung in the key of

A major A major (or the key of A) is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has three sharps. Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor. The key of A major is the only k ...

Music video

A self-titled music video to accompany the "Bad Love" single release was filmed and released in 1989. The music video was shot in a black and white picture and features Clapton playing and singing the song alongside

on bass guitar and vocals,

on keyboards and vocals as well as

, who is on drums and also sings backing vocals. The quartet is shown performing the title on stage while Clapton rehearsed for his, then, upcoming "

Journeyman World Tour The Journeyman World Tour was a -year concert tour by English musician Eric Clapton that began on July 6, 1989, in The Hague and concluded on March 9, 1991, in London. The tour was Clapton's first tour following the release of his 1989 studio al ...

". The main video action is interrupted with film sequences that show off-stage actions like camera and lightning arrangements and Clapton chatting to his fellow band members. The "Bad Love" video was frequently aired on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

, VH1,

MuchMusic Much (an abbreviation for its full name MuchMusic) is a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. through its Bell Media subsidiary that airs programming aimed at teenagers and young adults. MuchMusic launched on August 31, ...

, and

Fuse TV Fuse is an American pay television channel launched in 1994 which was originally dedicated to music. After merging with the Latino-oriented NuvoTV in 2015, Fuse shifted its focus to general entertainment and lifestyle programming targeting mult ...

. The music video was re-released on 12 October 1999, on the ''Clapton Chronicles: The Best of Eric Clapton'' DVD.

Accolades

Chart performance

In the United States, the song reached number 88 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 singles chart, where it stayed a total of five weeks. "Bad Love" was more successful on the Mainstream Rock songs chart, also compiled by the ''Billboard'' magazine, where it peaked at number one and stayed a total 21 weeks on the chart. The song was Clapton's last number-one hit to reach the ''Billboard'' Mainstream Rock songs chart. It stayed on top of the chart for three weeks. The single sold a total of 129,482 copies in the five weeks on the Hot 100 singles chart. In the United Kingdom, the release peaked at number 25 on the Official Charts Company's compilation, where it stayed seven weeks and sold 48,272 copies in the country. In Canada, "Bad Love" peaked at number 56 on the singles charts compiled by the ''RPM'' magazine, selling 2,001 copies, while on the chart. In Italy and Poland, the single release peaked at position 39 and number 14. In Japan, the album ranked on number ten on the ''Oricon'' international singles chart, selling more than 50,000 copies in total and becoming a

gold record Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

within a month. In the Netherlands, the single positioned itself at place 83 on the MegaCharts singles chart. According to Clapton himself, the release reached the Top 10 in five countries and was awarded with a Gold disc in Portugal and South Africa.Keil, Marcus (23 February 1990). ''Journeyman – An Interview with Eric Clapton''. ''Radio NRW''.

Essen Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Do ...

: . In total, the single release sold more than 250,000 copies worldwide.

Critical reception

Music critic Scott Floman notes that the song "rocked just hard enough while containing catchy choruses" and that "Bad Love" is a "catchy faster paced number which saw Clapton really letting loose on guitar", which to the critic is "not a surprise", because "the song was co-written with Foreigner's Mick Jones".

Chart positions

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

Media appearance

In 1990, Eric Clapton filmed a

television advertisement A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...

for the Japanese car company Honda Cars. The filming took place in a

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recording studio. In the commercial, which was shown frequently on worldwide television, the British rock musician is seen and heard

overdubbing Overdubbing (also known as layering) is a technique used in audio recording in which audio tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto one or more av ...

an extra guitar line, that Eric Clapton improvised, onto the song "Bad Love". For the commercial Eric Clapton brought his famous black

Fender Stratocaster The Fender Stratocaster, colloquially known as the Strat, is a model of electric guitar designed from 1952 into 1954 by Leo Fender, Bill Carson, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares. The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has continuousl ...

, " Blackie", out of retirement at the request of Honda Cars in Japan.