Eric Clapton recently discussed a mysterious missing album he created with Phil Collins. He addressed the issue in a statement shared on Harmless Dave.
During an interview, Clapton was asked about hidden songs and tracks, including a recently released Jerry Williams song called “Higher Power.” This led him to reveal details about an unreleased collaboration that has disappeared over the years.
“There’s a load of demos that he made which have kind of mysteriously disappeared,” Clapton explained. “I mean, there’s one guy that I know probably has them and you know, when I signed with Warner Brothers, me and Phil Collins made an album. And I sent it to Warner Brothers and they sent it back and said, ‘We can’t. There’s nothing here we can work with.’”
Clapton elaborated on why the record label rejected the project. He emphasized that the collaboration was driven by creative passion rather than commercial appeal.
“We were just having fun, you know, we were making music that we like, but they needed something more impressive for the market. They needed a single or at least a couple of singles for the thing to be marketable,” he said.
When asked directly about the whereabouts of these songs, Clapton pointed to a specific individual who may hold the key to recovering the lost material.
“You have to uh campaign with Lenny Waronker. He needs to look dig in his desk and find these demos because they are stupendous,” Clapton responded.
This revelation sheds light on a significant chapter in Clapton’s recording history. The album in question was Behind the Sun, which was eventually released on March 11, 1985, as Clapton’s ninth solo studio album, according to Wikipedia. However, the path to its release was far more complicated than fans realized.
Phil Collins initially served as the producer for the recording sessions at Montserrat. Clapton had written material based on his troubled relationship with Pattie Boyd. He was also experimenting with new technology, including a Roland guitar synthesizer, as documented by On the Record. The completed album pleased Clapton, Collins, and Clapton’s manager Roger Forrester. However, Warner Brothers expressed concern about the lack of commercially viable material that could be promoted as singles.
In the fall of 1984, Warner Brothers rejected the Collins-produced version of Behind the Sun. They insisted that Clapton record several new songs written by Texas songwriter Jerry Lynn Williams, backed by Los Angeles session players. Rather than simply accepting the label’s demands, Clapton demonstrated maturity by challenging them to provide what they considered suitable material. The label subsequently placed the project under the direction of veteran company producers Lenny Waronker and Ted Templeman—the very person Clapton now suggests may have the original demos, as noted by On the Record.
The revised Los Angeles sessions featured high-caliber session musicians. These included guitarists Lindsay Buckingham and Steve Lukather, drummer Jeff Porcaro, keyboardist Greg Phillinganes, and bassist Nathan East. Warner Brothers emphasized the new tracks and ultimately released two of them—”Forever Man” (which reached the Top 40) and “See What Love Can Do”—as singles. The album received mixed critical reviews, with critics noting the shift toward commercial appeal rather than artistic direction.
The fate of the unreleased collaboration remains uncertain. Clapton suggests that the original Phil Collins-produced demos may still exist in Waronker’s possession—potentially waiting to be rediscovered after nearly four decades.
