• Writer: J.J. Cale
• Producer: Delaney Bramlett
• Recorded: 1970 at the Village Recorder, Los Angeles
• Released: August 1970
• Players:
  Eric Clapton — guitar, vocals
  Delaney Bramlett — guitar, vocals
  Leon Russell — piano
  Bobby Whitlock — organ
  Carl Radle — bass
  Jim Gordon — drums
  Jim Price — trumpet
  Bobby Keys — saxophone
  Bonnie Bramlett, Rita Coolidge, Sonny Curtis, and Jerry Allison — vocals
• Album: Eric Clapton (RSO, 1970)
• Also On:
  Eric Clapton At His Best (Polydor, 1972)
  Eric Clapton’s Rainbow Concert (RSO, 1973/Chronicles, 1996)
  Just One Night (RSO, 1980)
  Time Pieces: The Best Of Eric Clapton (RSO, 1982)
  Crossroads (Polydor, 1988)
  and other compilations
• “After Midnight” was the first single released from Eric Clapton‘s self-titled solo debut in 1970. The song peaked at Number 18 on the Billboard Hot 100.
• “After Midnight” gained its greatest notoriety after a controversial remake of the song in 1987. Clapton performed it for a Michelob beer commercial, which, despite its striking images of Clapton jamming at a late-night blues club, seemed somewhat cavalier considering he is a recovering alcoholic and drug addict and was in a rehab center when the spot first aired.
• Michelob offered customers a six-minute version of the song on promotional cassettes.
• Songwriter J.J. Cale, a Tulsa, Oklahoma-based country-blues artist, also wrote Lynyrd Skynyrd‘s “Call Me the Breeze” and another one of Clapton’s best-known numbers, “Cocaine.” Known as a primary exporter of the “Tulsa sound” — a blend of rock-and-roll, country, blues, and jazz, with its own rustic flavor — Cale has refined a unique homegrown approach to making music that has earned him a reputation as a stylistic innovator.
• Clapton also admired Cale’s modesty and low profile, which he craved following his ’60s superstardom and the “Clapton is God” mythology.
• Nervous about singing lead on his first solo album, Clapton did shots of peppermint schnapps before cutting his vocal tracks.
• The Eric Clapton album marked his switch to the Fender Stratocaster after playing mostly Gibson guitars with Cream and Blind Faith.

FAST FORWARD:

• Clapton has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three times — with the Yardbirds, with Cream, and as a solo artist.
• Clapton was awarded a Member Of The British Empire (MBE) honor from Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II in 1995, which was upgraded to Commander Of The British Empire (CBE) in December 2003.

Clapton has devoted himself to establishing and maintaining the Crossroads Centre Antigua drug-and-alcohol-treatment facility.