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Outlook: The famous love songs written about me

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Pattie Boyd & George Harrison

27/12/2022 GMT

The famous love songs written about me

BBC World Service - Outlook, The famous love songs written about me

Something about Pattie Boyd inspired two rock stars to compose hits about her

Pattie Boyd was married first to George Harrison and then Eric Clapton and inspired some of rock's most romantic songs, but after the marriages ended she had an identity crisis.

As a model Pattie Boyd was the face of 1960s swinging London, but it was when she met and married George Harrison at the height of Beatlemania that she became even more famous. She tells us about the break-up of that marriage, and how she is still moved by the beauty of the songs George wrote about her, including Something. She went on to inspire more music when she met and married guitar legend Eric Clapton, including the hit song Layla — based on the Persian poem Layla and Majnun. Pattie tells Emily Webb how after both of her marriages ended she lost all sense of her own identity, and that photography helped her find it again. She has released a book of some of her most iconic photographs called Pattie Boyd: My Life in Pictures.  

The clip of The Beatles' concert at Shea Stadium came from Apple Corps Ltd and the clip of Kenny Everett interviewing George Harrison came from Radio London.

Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com

Presenter: Emily Webb
Producer: June Christie 

(Photo: George & Pattie Rose Garden. Credit: Pattie Boyd Archive)

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