In honor of Eric Clapton’s 77th birthday, today’s Song of the Day is his 1986 hit, “It’s in the Way That You Use It”. This song was the first track on the album August, which was named after the month Clapton’s son Conor was born. It was also was written for the movie The Color Of Money, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Paul Newman and Tom Cruise as pool sharks. It appeared on the soundtrack before Clapton’s album was released. Clapton wrote this with Robbie Robertson, who’s work with The Band in the ’60s encouraged Clapton to get away from the long, heavy solos he was playing with Cream. Robertson was in charge of the music for The Color Of Money, but because he was not finished with his first solo album, his record company would not let him sing on any of the songs. He got around it by contributing instrumental songs to the soundtrack.
Surprisingly, this song did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. However, it reached #2 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in 1986 and eventually positioned itself at the top of the charts one year after.