One of the first LPs I ever bought was Best Of Cream. I have been a fan of Clapton and to a lesser extent Bruce & Baker ever since and over the years have acquired most of EC’s recorded output.
I am not usually a fan of Best Of albums preferring an original album warts and all but when I bought it in 1972 I really had no idea about Cream and although I now have the entire catalogue Best Of introduced me to Cream and to me is a “proper” album in that I am totally used to the hearing the tracks in the order that they appear on the album.
Needless to say Best of Cream was one of the first albums I digitised but to be honest the LP is rather too scratched to make any kind of decent recording. It has never been released on CD to my knowledge although a number of similar compilations have appeared over the years.
Solution – I purchased a copy of one of the other compilations – The Very Best of Cream – which contains all of the Best Of tracks bar one plus a load of others. I then play the Best Of tracks in their correct order as they only seem right in that context if you know what I mean.
The “bar one” is White Room. Best Of contained a single edit but Very Best Of contains the full version from Wheels of Fire. I can just about live with that I think.
1. Sunshine Of Your Love
2. Badge
3. Crossroads
4. White Room
5. SWLABR
6. Born Under A Bad Sign
7. Spoonful
8. Tales Of Brave Ulysses
9. Strange Brew
10. I Feel Free