It’s the turn of another decade, giving bloggers, BBC journalists and Jimmy Carr yet another opportunity to compile a lengthy ‘top ten best whatever of the last decade’ list. And who are we to argue?

Today we’re doing something similar by taking a look forty years back through the mists of musical history. Sandwiched rather neatly between 1969 and 1971, the year 1970 stands as a monolith in which a lot happened in the world of music. Here are some of the musical high and low notes of that year:

- The Beatles release Let it Be before finally shutting up shop after ten long years of kicking everyone’s ass.

- Organisers decide it will be a great idea to hold one of the biggest festivals ever on the Isle of Wight, attracting 600,000 people (the island’s population is usually under 100,000.) The line-up went down brilliantly, the cleaning up afterwards did not.

- Murderer Charles Manson releases his first and only album. Critics agree he should have stuck to his day job.

- Black Sabbath release both their self-titled LP and Paranoid. No bats were harmed this time around.

- Simon and Garfunkel go their separate ways after releasing the Bridge Over Troubled Water record. The title track goes on to win around seven thousand awards, all of which are deserved and if you disagree you’re simply wrong.

- Jimi Hendrix unsuccessfully attempts to breathe red wine. Later that year Janis Joplin fights a heroin overdose. The heroin overdose wins.

- I ordered a pizza last night, and the doorbell went fifteen minutes later. I opened the door and Diana Ross was standing there. “What the hell is this?” I cry. Ross double checks the order, looks back at me and says “I thought you ordered a thin and crusty supreme?” HA! Thanks very much, I’ll be here all night. Anyway, 1970

- the year Diana Ross went off on her solo career.

- Jimmy Buffett finally summons enough motivation to stop bumming around on a beach and start recording.

1970 was also the year in which Ireland first won the Eurovision song contest, but as this is a music blog we won’t go into that here. What we will talk about today however is Eric Clapton, since 1970 could arguably be his most fruitful year and certainly his most tumultuous.

In the spring of 1970, Derek and the Dominos was born. Clapton and a few friends, all of whom were playing in the Delaney and Bonnie band, hooked up to form this new group after becoming sick of Delaney and Bonnie’s constant squabbling. It featured Bobby Whitlock on keys, Carl Radle on bass and Jim Gordon on drums.

The origins of the name ‘Derek and the Dominoes’ are unclear. All likelihood suggests the moniker was originally intended to be ‘Eric and the Dynamos’, but Clapton didn’t want to include his name for two reasons. Firstly, he wanted to play semi-anonymously to get away from the aforementioned fame gained through his prior bands. Secondly, Clapton had penned the lyrics to the infamous ‘Layla’ which he intended to release through the band - as an unrequited love song aimed at his buddy George Harrison’s wife, his reason for removing himself  self-explanatory.

After many recording sessions with the collaborative help of Duane Allman and a couple of Les Paul Standards, Derek and the Dominoes released Layla and other Assorted Love Songs in 1970, Eric Clapton’s defining achievement and one of the greatest records ever produced…

Critics panned it, nobody bought it and George Harrison and wife Patti Boyd weren’t super impressed by Clapton’s love declaration. Clapton didn’t take this outcome well, and by ‘not well’ I mean he decided to see if a two-year long heroin and alcohol addiction would do anything to improve his mood.

The rest of the band also fell one by one, as Dominoes are apt to do - Allman was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident, drugs got the better of bassist Radle and Jim Gordon went insane and decided that murdering his mother with a hammer was a good course of action.

If it wasn’t for Pete Townshend and others, we could be sat here wondering what Clapton would have achieved if he hadn’t died at such a young age. Thankfully, we don’t have to - Townshend intervened, Clapton kicked heroin and went on to legendary heights (and the Layla LP finally got the recognition it deserved a couple of years after its release.)

Tragedy didn’t stop hounding him, with relationship troubles, alcohol abuse and the accidental death of his son Conor in ‘91 (which must have had an unimaginable effect on him.) However, it was 1970 which was the year that was to either make or break Eric Clapton. Luckily for us all, history got it right this time and it ultimately made him.

Now watch the video: