Welcome to another edition of The story behind the song. Tonight's programme is a little bit special in that it's the story behind three very well-known pop songs. It's the story about a triangle (треугольник) - two men and one woman - and it's a story about friendship and one man's desperate love for his best friend's wife.

The story started when guitarist George Harrison of the Beatles met Patti Boyd early in the 1960s. Patti was a very beautiful fashion model, in fact (по правде говоря) she was probably the first 'top model'. Well, George Harrison fell in love with Patti and he wanted to write a song to express (выразить) his love for her. In fact it was one of the first songs he ever wrote for the Beatles. It was called Something... Something in the way she moves attracts me like no other lover,

George and Patti got married on January 21st, 1966. At first they were very happy, but as the years passed (со временем) their relationship began to deteriorate, mainly because George was unfaithful (неверный), Patti began flirting (флиртовать) with George's best friend, the guitarist Eric Clapton, so as to make her husband jealous (чтобы муженек поревновал).

George and Eric had been very close friends since they'd met in 1963, and they'd played guitar on each other's albums. Now Eric fell madly in love with (безумно влюбился в) his friend's wife. Patti liked Eric but she couldn't decide if she really wanted to leave (не могла решить, хочется ли ей покинуть) her husband or not, and the one who suffered (страдал) was Eric. He got very depressed about it all, and of course he couldn't talk to his friend George about it for obvious reasons.

When he was in the middle of this depression he decided to write a song about Patti so that she would realise (чтобы она поняла) how desperate he was feeling. But of course he couldn't name Patti (назвать Пэтти по имени) in the song. He'd recently read a book about an Arab princess called ‘Layla’ and he decided to use this name as the title of the song. 

Layla became Eric Clapton's biggest hit, and at the time Patti Boyd was probably the only person in the world who knew that Layla was really Patti. Finally, one night at a party, Eric confessed (сознался) to George that he was in love with his wife. George and Patti got divorced (развелись) in 1977, and two years later, Eric and Patti got married. And that brings us to the third and final song, which is called Wonderful tonight. This is a love song which Eric wrote for Patti and it's all about an evening when they go to a party together and he feels very proud because everyone turns (все оборачиваются) to look at his beautiful wife.

So, is there a happy ending to this story? I'm afraid not. Patti and Eric were happily married for a few years (несколько лет), but in the end they broke up (разошлись), mainly because of Eric's difficult personality, and they got divorced in 1989. And what about the friendship between the two best friends? Did that survive (выжила = сохранилась)? It depends who you ask. Curiously, according to (Любопытно, но по словам) George Harrison there's no problem, but according to (по словам Эрика) Eric Clapton there is. He said in an interview with a music magazine, 'We've talked about it but I don't know if the damage done to our friendship (ущерб, нанесенный нашей дружбе) can ever be repaired (“починен”).’ So, that's the story, two friends and three songs all written about one woman - all part of pop music history. Goodnight.