Derek and the Dominos — Criteria Studios, Miami

Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs — the Derek and the Dominos album containing 'Layla,' widely considered one of the greatest rock songs ever recorded — was recorded at Criteria Studios in North Miami in the summer of 1970. The sessions brought together Eric Clapton, Bobby Whitlock, Carl Radle, Jim Gordon, and Duane Allman, who joined as a guest and ended up playing on the entire record. The Allman Brothers had just finished recording at Criteria; Clapton heard Allman play and refused to record without him. The two guitarists' interplay on 'Layla,' 'Key to the Highway,' and 'Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad' is among the finest guitar dialogue in rock history.

The piano coda of 'Layla' — one of the most recognisable passages in all of rock — was written by drummer Jim Gordon, who had the melody as a separate piano piece. The combination of Clapton's anguished love for Pattie Boyd (the Layla of the title, after the character in a Persian poem), Allman's ferocious slide playing, and the emotional rawness of the performances — much of the recording was done in states of considerable intoxication — created something that transcended its circumstances.

Criteria Studios at 1755 NE 149th Street in North Miami was one of America's great independent recording facilities, home to sessions by the Eagles, the Bee Gees (who recorded most of their classic work there), James Brown, and many others. The building still operates as a recording studio under the name Hit Factory Criteria. It is in a nondescript North Miami commercial strip — the studio's legend is entirely internal.