Very Best Of Cream CD

There've been numerous one-disc Cream retrospectives over the years, but this is probably the best. Of course, Cream's official recorded output was only four albums during the group's brief two-year run, with very little chaff amongst the wheat, so one might be excused for wondering if you'd be better off with those still-in-print albums, or with THOSE WERE THE DAYS, the four-CD box set that collects more or less every note Cream ever recorded. In any case, at 20 songs, this is the most comprehensive one-CD Cream best-of extant and conceptually it's certainly the most interesting. Despite the fact the group was mostly esteemed as (and occasionally dismissed as) a live, blues-based extended-jams outfit that sometimes didn't know when to quit, most of the songs here are tuneful, concise studio tracks with Beatle-esque touches in the arrangements; it's hard to imagine how anybody could dismiss gems like "Anyone for Tennis" or "Badge" as excessive.

Cream: Jack Bruce (vocals, acoustic guitar, cello, harmonica, piano, organ, electric bass); Eric Clapton (vocals, guitar); Ginger Baker (vocals, drums, percussion).
Producers: Robert Stigwood, Felix Pappalardi.
Compilation producers: Chris Griffin, Bill Levenson, George McManus.
Engineers include: Tow Dowd, Damon Lyon-Shaw, John Timperley.
Recorded in 1967-1968. Includes liner notes by Hugh Fielder.
Digitally remastered by Joseph M. Palmaccio (PolyGram Studios).
Personnel: Eric Clapton (vocals, guitar); Jack Bruce (vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica, piano, organ, bass guitar); Ginger Baker (vocals, drums, percussion).
Liner Note Author: Hugh Fielder.
Photographer: Jim Marshall .
Arranger: Robert Stigwood.
There have been many compilations drawn from the four albums Cream originally released between 1966 and 1969. But the one most commonly available since the early '80s was the ten-track Strange Brew: The Very Best of Cream (1983), a barebones collection focusing on the group's hit singles. Note, then, that this album, despite the similar title, is a newly compiled 1995 CD/cassette containing all of the recordings on Strange Brew, plus ten more. It is thus the most comprehensive Cream anthology on the market, and includes all the group's essential tracks on a single disc with superior sound in a package containing good annotations. ~ William Ruhlmann
There've been numerous one-disc Cream retrospectives over the years, but this is probably the best. Of course, Cream's official recorded output was only four albums during the group's brief two-year run, with very little chaff amongst the wheat, so one might be excused for wondering if you'd be better off with those still-in-print albums, or with THOSE WERE THE DAYS, the four-CD box set that collects more or less every note Cream ever recorded. In any case, at 20 songs, this is the most comprehensive one-CD Cream best-of extant and conceptually it's certainly the most interesting. Despite the fact the group was mostly esteemed as (and occasionally dismissed as) a live, blues-based extended-jams outfit that sometimes didn't know when to quit, most of the songs here are tuneful, concise studio tracks with Beatle-esque touches in the arrangements; it's hard to imagine how anybody could dismiss gems like "Anyone for Tennis" or "Badge" as excessive.