"My Father's Eyes" is a song written and performed by British musician

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

and produced by Clapton and

Simon Climie Simon Climie (born 7 April 1957) is an English songwriter, musician and record producer. He is best known as the former lead singer of the UK duo Climie Fisher. Biography Climie was born in London. Beginning his career primarily as a songwr ...

. It was released as a single in 1998 and was featured on Clapton's thirteenth solo studio album, ''

Pilgrim The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as ...

'' (1998). The song reached the top 40 on the US ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' Hot 100 Airplay chart, peaking at number 16, which remains his last top-40 hit in said country as of . It also spent five weeks at number two on the ''Billboard''

Hot Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

chart. It became a top-five hit in Canada, where it peaked at number two, and reached the top 20 in Austria, Iceland, and Norway. In 1999, it won a

Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance The Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance was a Grammy Award recognizing superior vocal performance by a male in the pop category, the first of which was presented in 1959. It was discontinued after the 2011 Grammy season. The award wen ...

. Clapton performed this track for the first time in 1992 and again in 1996, in both electric and unplugged versions. These versions of the song were completely different from the official single release in 1998. He would later retire the song in 2004, along with " Tears in Heaven", until the '' 50 Years Further On Up the Road'' world tour in 2013.

Inspiration and content

Clapton wrote "My Father's Eyes" whilst living in

Antigua and Barbuda Antigua and Barbuda is a Sovereign state, sovereign archipelagic country composed of Antigua, Barbuda, and List of islands of Antigua and Barbuda, numerous other small islands. Antigua and Barbuda has a total area of 440 km2 (170 sq mi), ...

in 1991. The song was inspired by the fact that Clapton never met his father, Edward Fryer, who died of

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

in 1985. Describing how he wishes he knew his father, the song also refers to his own son Conor, who died in 1991 at age four after falling from an apartment window. In ''Eric Clapton: The Autobiography'' (2010), Clapton wrote: "In

he song He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

I tried to describe the parallel between looking in the eyes of my son, and the eyes of the father that I never met, through the chain of our blood."

Critical reception

British magazine ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as ''Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music We ...

'' named "My Father's Eyes" one of the album's "most satisfying moments" and "most radio-friendly offerings", "with Clapton's usual restrained vocalising given a strong lift on the memorable chorus by the more optimistically-sounding backing singers. This is unlikely to hang around the chart for long, but will serve its main purpose of lifting album sales."

Accolades

Track listing

# "My Father's Eyes" # " Change the World" # "Theme from a Movie That Never Happened" (Orchestral) # "Inside of Me"

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:My Father's Eyes (Song) 1998 singles 1998 songs Eric Clapton songs Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance Reprise Records singles Songs about fathers Songs written by Eric Clapton