This day in 1966 – Supergroup Cream released their debut studio album ‘Fresh Cream’ in the UK. The three piece of Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker also released their second single ‘I Feel Free’ on the same day.
The album was released in a slightly different form in January 1967 by Atco Records in the US, also in mono and stereo versions. The album peaked at No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 39 on the U.S. Albums Chart.
The mono versions were deleted not long after release and for many years only the stereo recordings were available. The UK mono album was reissued on CD for the first time in Japan, by Universal Music, in late 2013 as part of a deluxe SHM-CD and SHM-SACD sets (both editions also contain the UK stereo counterpart).
In January 2017, the album was again reissued, by Polydor, in a 4-CD box-set containing mono and stereo versions of the original UK and US release along with singles and B-sides.
In 2003, the album was ranked number 101 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and 102 in a 2012 revised list. Uncut describes the songs as “all about playing in a band and relaxing, the joy of being young, and they walk it like they talk it, being jumping-off points for wonderful spur-of-the moment improvisations”. Writing for the BBC, Sid Smith notes that “blues, pop and rock magically starts to coalesce to create something brand new”. Stephen Thomas Erlwine of AllMusic believes the record to be “instrumental in the birth of heavy metal and the birth of jam rock”.
Source: Wikipedia
