"Blue Eyes Blue" is a pop song written by American songwriter Diane Warren. The tune was written for the 1999 soundtrack of Runaway Bride. The British rock musician Eric Clapton recorded the song for the soundtrack and released his performance of the song as a single on July 20, 1999, for Reprise Records.
Background
The pop track was written by Diane Warren, especially for the 1999 romantic comedy film Runaway Bride, starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. The song was published under Realsongs, a division of American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers organization. Clapton recorded the song in Los Angeles, at Ocean Way/Record One Studios in the summer of 1999. The track was recorded at Los Angeles facility's Studio B, featuring an 80-input Solid State Logic SL 9000J console. When it came time for Clapton to record on the Diane Warren song, Allen Sides, owner of Ocean Way Studios worked on the release as the leading recording engineer. The recording was produced by Rob Cavallo. Greg Curtis and Blumpy were in charge of the recording's music programming and Chris Lord-Alge mixed "Blue Eyes Blue". The recording featured Eric Clapton singing and playing the guitar, Greg Curtis on keyboards and background vocals, Tim Pierce and Darryl Crooks on rhythm guitar, Nathan East as the bassist, Steve Ferrone on drums, Jamie Muhoberac on keyboards, Luis Conte and Mike Fasano on the percussion instrument. Orchestral composer David Campbell arranged the strings for the release. The song was released on July 27, 1999, as part of the Runaway Bride soundtrack on compact disc and music cassette, seven days after the single had been released. On October 12, 1999, the song appeared on the compilation album Clapton Chronicles: The Best of Eric Clapton. On September 11, 2001, "Blue Eyes Blue" was released as part of the double album Unplugged/Clapton Chronicles: The Best of Eric Clapton. On November 25, 2002, the pop title was released on the compilation album Songs of Love, by various artists.
Composition
Billboard magazine's Paul Verna thinks, the track belongs to the genre of pop music. Clapton himself called his take on the song "girls-like" and "soft".
Music video
To help promote both the single and soundtrack's sales figures, Clapton filmed a music video to accompany the single release. In the beginning, the music video shows Clapton, who dressed in a men's wedding outfit, sitting in front of a white church with a Martin Triple-O acoustic guitar, followed by a scene from the movie, in which Julia Roberts is riding a horse. Afterwards, Clapton is shown singing and playing the song inside the church, while several snippets of the horse-scene re-appear. Several scenes from the movie appear with Clapton being shown in between the movie sequences. Two minutes and twenty seconds into the music video, Clapton is shown, not wearing his entire suit anymore, playing and singing the song outside the church in a garden, where the wedding ceremony of Runaway Bride was held. Afterward, the video shows Clapton playing his solo on the acoustic guitar. The video ends with Clapton sitting in front of the white church, as he did in the beginning of the shoot. The music video was produced by Luke Scott and directed by Richard Goldstein for Warner Music Entertainment, which released the video in high-definition picture on both the VHS and DVD of Clapton Chronicles: The Best of Eric Clapton. The music video "Blue Eyes Blue" reached number nineteen on VH1's most-played music video chart in the United States.