As admirers of
Sam and Dave, Clapton and Whitlock styled the song as a "call and response" with the pair singing alternating verses. "Tell the Truth" was recorded on 18 June 1970 as the first original song by what became Derek and the Dominos: Clapton, Whitlock, drummer
Jim Gordon and bassist
Carl Radle. The four musicians had just helped
George Harrison record the majority of the basic tracks for his album
All Things Must Pass, before which Harrison had agreed to Clapton's request that his co-producer on the album,
Phil Spector, would help the Dominos make their first recording as a group. Four days before the session, Derek and the Dominos, with
Dave Mason as second guitarist, had played "Tell the Truth" at their debut concert, held at London's
Lyceum Ballroom. The session for the song and for the Clapton–Whitlock collaboration "Roll It Over" took place at
Apple Studio in central London, with the intention being to issue the tracks as the
A- and B-sides of the group's first single. In addition to the four band members, the line-up on "Tell the Truth" again featured Mason as second guitarist, on electric guitar. Harrison also played on "Roll It Over", In August 1970, while recording their album
Layla with producer
Tom Dowd, the band decided to remake "Tell the Truth". Author Jan Reid writes of the London-recorded version: "the problem wasn't Spector's fabled
Wall of Sound engineering control – rather, it sounded as though they sang and played the song about 20 percent too fast. In Spector's production, the lyrics and the voices of Clapton and Whitlock flew by in meaningless garble: the song lost its insight and sense of humor." where they recorded "Tell the Truth" on 28 August. With Allman's slide guitar providing a counterpoint to the melody played by Whitlock and Clapton, Dowd and the band were finally satisfied with the song. Clapton subsequently called
Robert Stigwood, record executive of RSO, and told him not to issue the original version of "Tell the Truth" as a single. but the record was soon withdrawn. The Dowd production of the song then appeared as the opening song on side three of the
Layla double album, issued in November 1970. The single has since become a sought-after collector's item. Two versions of "Tell the Truth" were later released on
The History of Eric Clapton (1972), the Spector version and a previously unissued jam entitled "Tell the Truth – Jam". The Spector-produced recording and "Roll It Over" also appeared on Clapton's four-CD compilation
Crossroads in 1988, while "Tell the Truth – Jam" featured on
The Layla Sessions: 20th Anniversary Edition in 1990 as "Tell the Truth (Jam #1)". Whitlock recorded an upbeat version of "Tell the Truth" for his second solo album,
Raw Velvet (1972). This was recently included in the 2013 compilation ''Bobby Whitlock: Where There's a Will There's a Way. The ABC Dunhill Recordings''. Musicians on that recording included all the Dominos, plus George Harrison, Jim Price, Bobby Keys and Rick Vito. ==Live performances==