Trivia / Cream

• Artist Disillusionment: One of the principal reasons behind their breakup. When they started out, they had very little material, so they jammed in order to fill out their live sets. They became popular pretty quickly, and their management booked them into a punishing schedule of tours, which would have been tough even for a band that was simply playing songs every night, without the pressure of having to give dazzling improvisations in every show. The pressure to improvise was too much, and Clapton in particular got sick of his own playing. The famous newspaper article that called him the "master of the cliché" was the last straw.
• Black Sheep Hit: Their debut single "Wrapping Paper" was a retro Jazz ballad with no attempt at any kind of Hard Rock sound, done precisely because everyone was expecting their first song to be heavier.
• Breakup Breakout:
  • Eric Clapton, obviously—though there is a large contingent of fans who see all his post-Cream work as inferior.
  • Both Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker made decent names for themselves in the world of jazz fusion.
• Creative Differences: Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker's fights were well known and a major contributor to the band's dissolution, but see also Artist Disillusionment above.
• Two-Hit Wonder: Averted in their time but today most casual listeners only know them for "Sunshine of Your Love" and "White Room."
• Uncredited Role: George Harrison made an uncredited guest appearance on rhythm guitar on the song "Badge", which he co-wrote with Clapton.
• What Could Have Been: Eric Clapton attempted to recruit Steve Winwood into the group to act as a peacemaker between Bruce and Baker. It didn't work, but Clapton went on to play with Winwood in the even shorter-lived Blind Faith.

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