Layton was a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the West Chester State Teachers College majoring in meteorology with a minor in music. He began playing the organ when he was twelve years old. While serving in the United States Navy during World War II, he learned to play the Hammond organ. After the war, he began a career as a professional organist writing scores for soap operas on CBS. Four noted CBS soap operas were "The Secret Storm," "Love is a Many Splendored Thing," "Love of Life," and "Where the Heart Is." During that time, he recorded nearly 27 albums of organ music. He was also noted for traveling the world as a spokesperson and artist for the Hammond Organ company.
Layton joined the New York Yankees franchise in 1967 when CBS purchased the Yankees from Dan Topping. Because of pressure from the success of the New York Mets, their new Shea Stadium facility and the popularity of their organist, Jane Jarvis, Topping had installed an organ in Yankee Stadium at the beginning of the 1965 season. Lowrey organ demonstrator Toby Wright was the first Yankee organist and did the 1965 and 1966 seasons. Team president Mike Burke brought Layton in to play organ music at the stadium in 1967. At the time, he had never been to the stadium and knew nothing about baseball. He went on to play the organ for the Yankees for over three decades, taking a break from 1971 to 1977 to pursue other musical commitments. When he retired on September 28, 2003, he played a final performance of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game", while fans chanted "Eddie! Eddie!". Current New York Yankees organists Ed Alstrom and Paul Cartier were recruited by Layton to take his place at Yankee Stadium.
Layton loved sailing and owned his own tugboat. He also owned a huge collection of model trains he maintained at his Forest Hills, New York home. Eddie loved demonstrating organs to the public, and giving organ lessons. In 2009, Soapluvva established a YouTube tribute channel to both Eddie Layton and Charles Paul, who were colleagues of each other at the CBS Broadcast Center in Manhattan.
Layton claimed credit as the first to come up with the idea of playing charge calls at a baseball game in 1971. However, Michael Silverbush claims to have made the innovation eight years prior. Ken Burns' 1994 documentary Baseball contained some videographic evidence buttressing Silverbush's claim. During the sequence on the new New York Mets fans in the film's 8th installment, Silverbush can briefly be seen playing a trumpet at the Shea Stadium in 1969.
