One of the first ten record albums I ever owned was "The Best of Cream," a 1969 release from Atco that offered up ten tracks representing nearly all of the group's hits singles from both the United States and the United Kingdom. Of course in my effort to recreate my youth I wanted to get that vinyl album on CD, but it turns out you cannot do that. However, "The Very Best of Cream" includes all of those original ten tracks plus ten more, so it seems rather rude to complain, especially since I am fully capable of programming my CD player to recreate my old album (I did it with my very first record, "The Beatles Second Album," so I can do it with anything with the aid of 21st century technology).

The idea of "hits" is rather antithetical to what was great about Cream, but it did make me curious as to what chart success they had in the U.S. In 1968 they had "Anyone for Tennis" (#64), "Sunshine of Your Love" (#5), and "White Room" (#6). In 1969 they added "Badge" (#60) and "Crossroads" (#28) to that short list. All of those songs are included in these 20 tracks. I am pretty sure "Shine of Your Love" was the song that I played on juke boxes the most in the 1960s ("Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter" is probably second), but for a lot of Cream fans the best way to listen to the group is on their live recordings where they get into improvisation and showmanship.

Deciding about this one is pretty simple. If you have the four albums that Cream put out during the brief time Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker were together, then you have all twenty of these tracks. If not, then having "The Very Best of the Cream" makes it unnecessary for you to ever go out and get them. Even if "Crossroads," "Tales of Brave Ulysses," "I Feel Fine," "Strange Brew," and "Born Under a Bad Sign" were never "hits" (or singles) on this side of the pond does not mean you do not want to have them in your music library. Any album that claims to be the "best" and can offer up 20 tracks like this one does is way ahead in the game. In the end the only minor complain I have about "The Best of Cream" is that the tracks are not arranged chronologically, but, again, not a problem in these postmodern times. Besides, the accompanying notes are pretty good too.

I have tried really hard and for a long time to like Cream, but they just weren't that good. "White Room," "Badge," and the live "Crossroads" are all awesome, but for every one of those there were 30 overlong, unfocused blues jam-type songs. The Who were actually better at doing Cream music than Cream--check out "Live At Leeds" for a demonstration of this. I thought live Cream would be better, but I bought "The BBC Sessions" and is isn't much better than this "Very Best Of" is. I suspect I would like Cream a lot more if anything they ever performed had been recorded even halfway decently. After all, everything else Eric Clapton ever did--before or after--is gold.

Ive yet to find any live Cream recordings that are any where near as good as Crossroads and Spoonful on Wheels of Fire. All the other stuff lacks the moral power of experiencing new space. Does anyone out there know of any other recordings that are on the same page ? Regards John Nobbs