Cream formed in 1966 with bassist Jack Bruce, Eric Clapton on guitar and drummer Ginger Baker made their live debut at The Twisted Wheel, Manchester, England. This British group’s third album Wheels of Fire was the world’s first platinum-selling double. album.
The primary songwriter and vocalist was Bruce, yet Clapton contributed vocals and songs as well. The instrumental proficiency of the band members was highly regarded and was considered the world’s first supergroup. The band broke up in May 1968 due to tensions between Bruce and Baker. Post-breakup the band made the final album Goodbye and toured ending up performing two final concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in November 1968. This performance was released as a home video in 1977. Over the span of their career Cream sold over 15 million records worldwide spanning several genres of rock music. (blues rock “Crossroads”, “Born Under a Bad Sign”, psychedelic rock “Tales of Brave Ulysses”, “White Room”, and hard rock “Sunshine of Your Love”, “SWLABR”.)
Cream was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. They are included in both Rolling Stone and VH1’s lists of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time”, at number 67 and 61 respectively. They were also ranked number 16 on VH1’s “100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock”.
