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).
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.
