Complete List Of Derek And The Dominos Band Members

Feature Photo: Atco Records, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Derek and the Dominos emerged from the musical crossroads of 1970 as a band formed more by shared chemistry than by long-term planning. Singer and guitarist Eric Clapton, keyboardist and singer Bobby Whitlock, bassist Carl Radle, and drummer Jim Gordon had all worked together through Delaney & Bonnie and Friends. Their time backing George Harrison during the sessions for All Things Must Pass helped bring the four musicians together as a permanent group.

The band’s only studio album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, was produced by Tom Dowd and released in November 1970. Duane Allman contributed lead and slide guitar to most of the album after meeting Clapton during the Miami recording sessions. The record was not an immediate commercial success, but its reputation grew steadily, particularly after “Layla” became a major hit in 1972.

Derek and the Dominos remained active for approximately one year. The band toured extensively, began work on a second album, and then dissolved before those sessions were completed. The live album Derek and the Dominos in Concert followed in 1973, preserving the power of the four-member touring lineup.

The group’s history was brief, but its membership connected British blues rock, Memphis soul, Southern rock, and the American studio-musician tradition. By 2026, Eric Clapton was the only surviving member of the official four-man lineup following the deaths of Carl Radle, Jim Gordon, and Bobby Whitlock.

Core Members

Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton formed Derek and the Dominos after his work with Blind Faith and Delaney & Bonnie and Friends. As the band’s guitarist, lead vocalist, and principal songwriter, he brought experience from the Yardbirds, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Cream, and Blind Faith into a setting designed to feel less like another supergroup.

Clapton co-wrote much of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs with Bobby Whitlock. The album’s songs drew from blues, gospel, soul, and rock while reflecting the emotional turmoil surrounding Clapton’s feelings for Pattie Boyd, who was then married to George Harrison.

After Derek and the Dominos ended, Clapton withdrew from public performance while struggling with heroin addiction. He returned to recording and touring during the middle of the 1970s, beginning another major phase of his career with albums including 461 Ocean Boulevard and Slowhand.

Carl Radle remained an important member of Clapton’s recording and touring band through the 1970s. Clapton later continued a long solo career that included “I Shot the Sheriff,” “Cocaine,” “Wonderful Tonight,” “Tears in Heaven,” and his successful MTV Unplugged album.

Bobby Whitlock

Robert Stanley Whitlock was born on March 18, 1948, in Memphis, Tennessee. His early career was rooted in the city’s soul-music community, where he worked around artists connected to Stax Records before joining Delaney & Bonnie and Friends.

Whitlock co-founded Derek and the Dominos with Clapton, Carl Radle, and Jim Gordon. His organ, piano, vocals, and gospel-influenced singing were essential to the band’s sound. He wrote or co-wrote several of the original songs on Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, including “I Looked Away,” “Keep On Growing,” “Anyday,” “Tell the Truth,” “Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?” and “Thorn Tree in the Garden.”

Whitlock also contributed keyboards and vocals to George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass and worked on Clapton’s first solo album. After Derek and the Dominos ended, he released solo albums including Bobby Whitlock and Raw Velvet.

Whitlock returned to public performance and recording during the later years of his career, frequently working with his wife, CoCo Carmel. He was inducted into the Beale Street Walk of Fame in 2024. Whitlock died on August 10, 2025, at the age of seventy-seven.

Carl Radle

Carl Dean Radle was born on June 18, 1942, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He played several instruments as a young musician before concentrating on bass guitar and becoming part of the Oklahoma and Los Angeles studio communities.

Radle worked with Gary Lewis & the Playboys and became a highly regarded session bassist before joining Delaney & Bonnie and Friends. That association brought him together with Clapton, Whitlock, and Gordon and led directly to Derek and the Dominos.

His restrained, supportive bass playing became one of the foundations of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. Rather than crowding the arrangements, Radle created steady melodic lines that held together the guitars, keyboards, vocals, and Jim Gordon’s drumming.

Radle continued recording and touring with Clapton throughout most of the 1970s. He also worked with J.J. Cale, Joe Cocker, George Harrison, Leon Russell, John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy, Dr. John, and other major artists. Radle died on May 30, 1980, at the age of thirty-seven and was inducted posthumously into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 2006.

Jim Gordon

James Beck Gordon was born on July 14, 1945. He began working professionally as a teenager and became one of the most in-demand studio drummers in Los Angeles, contributing to recordings by the Beach Boys and numerous other artists associated with the Wrecking Crew.

Gordon toured with Delaney & Bonnie and Friends before joining Derek and the Dominos. His forceful drumming and close partnership with Carl Radle gave the band one of the most powerful rhythm sections of its era.

Gordon played drums and percussion throughout Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. He received a co-writing credit with Clapton for “Layla” because of the piano-led coda added to the song. Rita Coolidge later maintained that she had developed the original piano melody with Gordon, creating a long-running dispute over the passage’s authorship.

After the Dominos ended, Gordon continued recording with artists including Steely Dan, Alice Cooper, Frank Zappa, and Traffic. He later developed severe mental illness and was convicted of killing his mother during a psychotic episode in 1983. Gordon remained incarcerated for the rest of his life and died on March 13, 2023, at the age of seventy-seven.

Additional Members And Contributors

Duane Allman

Howard Duane Allman was born on November 20, 1946, and became the founder and original leader of the Allman Brothers Band. He was also a highly sought-after session guitarist whose credits included recordings with Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, King Curtis, Boz Scaggs, and Herbie Mann.

Producer Tom Dowd introduced Clapton and Allman during the Layla sessions at Criteria Studios in Miami. After the Dominos attended an Allman Brothers Band concert, Allman returned to the studio with them and quickly developed a remarkable musical connection with Clapton.

Allman contributed lead and slide guitar to most of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. His playing became especially important to “Layla,” “Key to the Highway,” “Have You Ever Loved a Woman,” “Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?” and the band’s version of Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing.”

Clapton invited Allman to join Derek and the Dominos, but he remained committed to the Allman Brothers Band. He never became part of the regular touring lineup, although he performed with the Dominos at selected concerts in December 1970. Allman died in a motorcycle accident on October 29, 1971, at the age of twenty-four.

Dave Mason

David Thomas Mason was born on May 10, 1946, and first achieved prominence as a founding member of Traffic. He wrote and sang “Hole in My Shoe” and composed “Feelin’ Alright?,” which became one of the most frequently covered songs associated with the group.

Mason participated in early Derek and the Dominos sessions and performed at the band’s first concert at London’s Lyceum Theatre in June 1970. His involvement came while Clapton, Whitlock, Radle, and Gordon were also working on George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass.

Mason did not remain with the group for the recording of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. Duane Allman later supplied the second-guitar presence that became central to the completed album.

After his brief association with the Dominos, Mason continued a successful solo and session career. His best-known solo recordings included “We Just Disagree,” and his credits extended to Jimi Hendrix, George Harrison, the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Fleetwood Mac, and many others. Mason was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Traffic in 2004. He died on April 19, 2026, at the age of seventy-nine.

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Updated August 2, 2026.