Cream (band) : 1. History, 1.2. Fresh Cream

Cream (band)

1. History.

1.2. Fresh Cream

Cream's debut album, Fresh Cream, was recorded and released in 1966. The album reached #6 in the UK charts and #39 in the United States.^[21] It mainly consisted of blues covers, including "Four Until Late", "Rollin' and Tumblin'" (written by Muddy Waters), "Spoonful" (written by Willie Dixon and recorded by Howlin' Wolf), "I'm So Glad" and "Cat's Squirrel".^[22] The rest of the album featured songs written (or co-written) by Jack Bruce, most notably "I Feel Free" (which was a UK hit single,^[3] but only included on the American edition of the LP), and two by Ginger Baker (one of which, "Toad", contained one of the earliest examples of a drum solo in rock music).

The early Cream bootlegs display a much tighter band showcasing more songs. All of the songs are reasonably short five-minute versions of "N.S.U.", "Sweet Wine" and "Toad". But a mere two months later, the setlist shortened, with the songs then much longer.