Doyle Bramhall II Helps Clapton & King Album Rise

06/22/2000 5:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen

(6/22/00, 2 p.m. ET) - Riding With The King, the new collection from Eric Clapton and B.B. King, debuts on next week's Billboard album chart at an impressive Number Three, with sales of more than 193,000 copies, according to industry sources (LAUNCH, 6/21).

One of the songs on the album is "Marry You," which was written by former Arc Angels member Doyle Bramhall II, his wife Susannah Melvoin, and guitarist Craig Ross. While he doesn't claim any credit for the remarkable early success of Riding With The King, Bramhall told LAUNCH that there's an interesting story behind "Marry You"

"Me and Craig Ross from Lenny [Kravitz]'s band, we came up with the groove, and I couldn't really finish the lyrics, and we were sort of pressed for time. I knew sort of what I wanted -- I wanted a Johnny "Guitar" Watson kind of song, like '70s funk, but I wanted, like, Barry White lyrics to it. And she heard it one time, started writing lyrics, and she gave it to me, and it was like the Johnny 'Guitar' Watson lyric to it. So, I thought it was funny, because I don't know what my little, cute, little, innocent wife is writing those kind of lyrics. It's, like, 'Where'd you learn that?'"

Bramhall and Melvoin sang backing vocals on the track, and Bramhall also played guitar. Over a driving wah-wah guitar track, the lyrics to "Marry You" include the line: "Come on in the back of my '57/ Let me show you the way, the way to heaven."

-- Bruce Simon, New York and Craig Rosen, Los Angeles

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