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Book Reviews of Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me

Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me
Wonderful Tonight George Harrison Eric Clapton and Me
Author: Pattie Boyd, Penny Junor
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ISBN-13: 9780307407832
ISBN-10: 0307407837
Publication Date: 5/27/2008
Pages: 336
Rating:
  • Currently 3.4/5 Stars.
 32

3.4 stars, based on 32 ratings
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Book Type: Paperback
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

22 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

reviewed Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me on + 4 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 16
This book is very poorly written. The book's timeline is confusing and her story is disjointed. Pun intended. I think the writers, Pattie Boyd and Penny Junor, were using the same substances that Pattie, George and Eric used in previous decades. The only good things about this book are the photos and the gossip.
DaisyDee avatar reviewed Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me on + 5 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 8
While it was an interesting read, it was difficult to follow. The beginning while talking about her childhood, showed emotion and you could feel for her. After that she just rambles on, throws out so many names and places that it is hard to keep track of where you are in the book. A lot about George Harrison and Eric Clapton seemed to be written without emotion. I did not know that Bell Bottom Blues was also written for her. She speaks of how Clapton handed her a pair of bell bottoms and told her he wrote the song for her... then just goes into something else. Just no emotion there at all. Holy cow.. If someone like George Harrison or Eric Clapton wrote a song for me, I would be gushing over how this made me feel. There were a lot of good insights in this book, but she jumped around so much half the time I had no idea what she was talking about and had to go back and forth to follow.
dazeerae avatar reviewed Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me on + 55 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
Pattie Boyd's memoir is full of famous names, places, and events, but there is so much that is lacking. There is a disjointed nature to her writing; she includes some of the oddest details which add nothing to the overall story. Her life choices boggle the mind. She repeatedly puts up with drug abuse and infidelities by George Harrison and Eric Clapton. After witnessing the effects of heroin on Eric and her sister, Pattie impulsively decides to try some of her sister's stash in the airport bathroom before their flight, a trip that had been planned as a means of weaning her sister off heroin. For a woman who inspired three of the greatest love songs ever written (Something, Wonderful Tonight, and Layla), Pattie comes off as quite vacuous.
reviewed Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me on + 34 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
My favorite all time musicians: George Harrison and Eric Clapton. Pattie Boyd was married to both. So obviously, I absolutely loved this book. What a fascinating life she lead with them and since she was with them. So fun to read. Great photos too.
DaisyDee avatar reviewed Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me on + 5 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
While it was an interesting read, it was difficult to follow. The beginning while talking about her childhood, showed emotion and you could feel for her. After that she just rambles on, throws out so many names and places that it is hard to keep track of where you are in the book. A lot about George Harrison and Eric Clapton seemed to be written without emotion. I did not know that Bell Bottom Blues was also written for her. She speaks of how Clapton handed her a pair of bell bottoms and told her he wrote the song for her... then just goes into something else. Just no emotion there at all. Holy cow.. If someone like George Harrison or Eric Clapton wrote a song for me, I would be gushing over how this made me feel. There were a lot of good insights in this book, but she jumped around so much half the time I had no idea what she was talking about and had to go back and forth to follow.
booklit avatar reviewed Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me on + 473 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
I loved this book. Pattie Boyd has great recolection of events with George Harrison and Eric Clapton. You felt like you were there living it with her. Good book. For all fans who love Eric And George a must read.
reviewed Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me on + 412 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
I got half way through and put it down. Found the writing stale. Maybe she needed a better ghost writer...
cappers avatar reviewed Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me on
Helpful Score: 2
Fascinating and shocking.

Patty Boyd tells it like it was- all the good times and bad.

It is sad in a way to see how insulated Eric Clapton and George Harrison lives were and are.

Patty compared them to children because they had managers and agents do everything for them and they couldnt cope with the every day realities of life.

Patty took alot of crap from both of them and never set boundaries with them until it was too late.But it is who she is and i felt very endeared to her because she was so open and trusting.

I saw into the worlds of these great musicians and sometimes didnt like what I saw, But they have contributed so much to us so I am glad I have read this book!
reviewed Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me on + 7 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
This book was a real eye opener to a Beatles fan like me. As a young girl I adored them and thought they had the perfect life. Was I in for a rude awakening after reading Pattie's account of their lives. No wonder they didn't last that long as a group. It was sad to see them break up but now I realize what a relief it probably was for them. Pattie was honest in her retelling of her life with both George and Eric. She not only told about their faults but her own. Interesting read!
reviewed Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me on + 76 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
interesting book about george harrison and eric clapton and their ex-wife, pattie boyd.
reviewed Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me on
Helpful Score: 1
The book started off slow. Once it reached a point in time that I could remember, I really enjoyed it.
reviewed Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me on + 213 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Not as much gossip about George Harrison and Eric Clapton as i would have liked. But it was still an enjoyable read!
Snoopygirl avatar reviewed Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me on + 12 more book reviews
An interesting memoir that gives perspective on life in the 60's and beyond. Pattie Boyd had a turbulent life that was captivating to read about.
songman avatar reviewed Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me on + 2 more book reviews
On February 9th 1964 I became a "Beatle Freak". George was always my favorite Beatle. I enjoy reading anything about him that I can. This book was no exception.

While I read with interest Pattie's inside information of her circle of friends, I came away with the idea that she had/has a somewhat grandiose perception of her influence on George and Eric.

According to Pattie, it was she who first dabbled in "chanting" which became such an important part of George's life, an event that put him on his path of inner enlightenment.

She states that the song "Something" was written for her. Maybe it was but other things I have read indicate very strongly that George actually wrote it as a love song for the Lord Krishna but had to make it sound as if he was singing about a female in order for it to be accepted by the public.

She also says that her refusal to respond to Eric Clapton's affections caused him to begin using heroin and thus, resulted in his addiction to it and a life of self-destruction.

Since I wasn't there, all of these things could be true. But some of them do seem a little far-fetched. Still, I feel that reading this book was not a waste of time. I liked reading about George's interactions with Pattie's family as well as other scenarios of their life together. Some people have commented on her tendency to jump around from event to event which to them was confusing. I agree that she does do that and at times I also had difficulty keeping her time frames straight. But my mind kinda works the same way as her writing style so it wasn't that big of a deal for me. I still liked her story.
perryfran avatar reviewed Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me on + 1222 more book reviews
Pattie Boyd was a model working in London in the 1960s and was fortunate enough to be cast as a school girl in the movie Hard Days Night where she met, fell in love with, and ended up marrying George Harrison of The Beatles. This thrust her into the heyday of 60s rock and roll and especially into Beatlemania. As the years progressed, she became less infatuated with George and left him for Eric Clapton who she also married thus becoming the wife of two of rock's icons. Boyd inspired Harrison's song "Something", and Clapton's songs "Layla", "Bell Bottom Blues" and "Wonderful Tonight".

This memoir by Boyd provided a lot of insights into both Harrison and Clapton including the good and the darker sides of both. Both Harrison and Clapton were brilliant musicians but they also drank, used drugs, and were unfaithful to Pattie. Clapton was especially portrayed as a really offensive person who was an alcoholic and kept Pattie away from him so he could have affairs with other women. I know in recent years Clapton has been vilified because of some racist comments he has made and also because of his anti-vaccine stance during Covid.

Boyd also includes in the memoir her life before and after these marriages including growing up in Kenya, the divorce of her parents, and her early modeling career. Later she also became quite well known for her photography, especially her photos of musicians during the 1960s. But her story often meanders and she throws in a lot of information about her trips to various locations around the world, fixing up houses with descriptions of the furniture, her forays into cooking, etc. that don't really provide any meaningful content to her relationships. Overall, I did like that the memoir gave a first hand look into the lives of some of the great rock legends of the 60s, especially the Beatles, but it also was very disjointed and I often got confused trying to keep track of some of the people mentioned -- Pattie had a tendency to throw out a lot of first names throughout the memoir that I could not really remember who they were, family members, friends, other musicians, or ?? Only a mild recommendation for this one.
reviewed Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me on + 11 more book reviews
As an avid Beatle lover, I couldn't resist reading this book to see what it was like to have been married to a Beatle (George Harrison) at the height of their popularity, and then to leave him for one of his best friends, Eric Clapton. The excesses of the 60's come through loud and clear and it's a wonder any of them made it through. Patti Boyd comes across as incredibly naive (divorcing George Harrison for a mere 100,000 pounds after 10 years of marriage) but she really tells is like it was. If you're at all interested in the Beatles or Eric Clapton, I recommend this book. The narrative begins with her meeting George while filming A Hard Day's Night and continues her story through George's death, her divorce from Clapton, and the death of Clapton's son Connor.
WestieMom avatar reviewed Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me on + 74 more book reviews
This book was so much fun. She was very candid about the Beatles and Eric Clapton - warts and all! I have read the Clapton and Harrison books - and this is my favorite by far.
reviewed Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me on + 2 more book reviews
Wonderful Tonight is an inside look into life in the sixties by one of it's "beautiful people". Patti Boyd, a London model and first wife of George Harrison, recalls their courtship and marriage, and eventual divorce, after super guitarist Eric Clapton finally succeeds in seducing his best friend's wife into being with him.With, at least three, love songs written for her and known throughout the world, Patti is a woman of legend. Patti is not exempt from the pain and disappointment of the effects of lonliness, infidelity, miscarriage, a loved one's chemical addictions and unbelievably, her low self-esteem. This is an engaging story that proves that came and fortune doesn't exclude you from the realities of life.
rhyta avatar reviewed Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me on + 10 more book reviews
A look into the life Boyd led with both George Harrison and then Eric Clapton. I found her early childhood experiences were a big influence on her outlook as she matured. A pleasant read for those who want to relive the 60's.
getinmybellykelly avatar reviewed Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me on
Ehh, not great. I read this book because I was interested in learning about her life with two famous musicians and while there was plenty of that, I think it was just not terribly well done. It kind of read like "and then we did this, and then we met this person, and then we did this, and then we met this person." A little bit boring. I was ready for it to be over.
reviewed Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me on + 6 more book reviews
This was a great book to read if you were a Beatles Fan. Shortly after reading it PBS aired the Eight Days a Week documentary made by Ron Howard in 2016 and this book gave so many rich details to coincide with movie. I was really happy I had read the book before seeing the special. It gave a whole different perspective to many of things that I remember when I was in elementary school about the the Fab 4. The years with Eric Clapton were very sad, he was one messed up guy and I hope he has his life together now. He is too talented to waste it on drugs and alcohol.

Pattie Boyd, led an interesting life but she seemed to be in a daze most of the time. Can't understand why she put up with some of the stuff she did but sure hope she has a great relationship now.
reviewed Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me on + 5 more book reviews
I am not really sure that this book should be even be titled "Pattie Boyd." She was just someone who happened to catch the interest of two very famous people. Her life would probably not be very interesting to read about had it not contained George Harrison and Eric Clapton.