Disco de Cream: “20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Cream”

Against my better judgement, I bought this record to be my first foray into Cream (I'm fourteen, so I'm still catching up on rock's golden years). Despite my reservations after buying the '20th Century Masters' disc of The Who - a disc that, despite the good music had poor track selection, was too short and had only a one page, poorly written biography - I went ahead and bought the same series of disc, only of not The Who, but of Cream. After all, I was saving nearly $15 by buying this one as opposed to 'Strange Brew' or one of the other complete greatest hits discs available. But, my bargain hunting mode just kicked in, and I bought the '20th Century Masters' greatest hits instead of one of the others. As soon as I got the receipt, I was kicking myself.

You see, apparantly the big thing these days for the big multi-million dollar corporations is ripping off it's customers - in most cases the customers that have been loyal to them from day one, even the ones who stood by them during the entire music software deal (like me). I have no problem with record companies' normal purpose, but when they begin doing something like this, it becomes mildly disheartening. They even have the formula for doing it down pat. Take a band's real greatest hits disc, drop everything but the MEGA hits, add a poorly written one page biography (complete, often with historical inaccuracies), and slap the thing onto a bargain bin shelf for $7.99 (Cdn.).

The music itself, however, shines through all this. This being my introduction to Cream other than a couple of covers of 'Sunshine Of Your Love' by Jimi Hendrix that I've heard on his BBC Sessions disc (as well as a few concert bootlegs, but we're not going to delve into detail), I was quite impressed. Although, I admit, at first, only three or four songs actually impressed me. But, alas, I'm seldom accurate on my first listen, so I went back and went through it a few more times.

After I did this, I realized that there were more than just a few great songs. To be fair, nearly everything on the CD is excellent. Eric Clapton shines on the guitar, varying his approach to it throughout - sometimes playing it straight and sometimes drenching it in wah. Jack Bruce's bass and vocals are also excellent, as are Ginger Baker's drums. From the first to the final track, the music speaks for itself. Powerful, emotive, and superbly entertaining music from the music world's first power trio.

However, everything else, like I've mentioned isn't so bright. The one page biography of the band is written fairly poorly, and, if I'm not mistaken, contains one or more inaccuracies. The few photos displayed through the liner notes are also poorly selected, with most (if not all) of them stemming from the band's original albums themselves.

In addition, the song selection is poor. The band had a lot more great songs that were dropped from this release. I just wonder to myself how in the hell one greatest hits album can have 17 or so songs, while this one has 11. Is the definition of 'greatest hits' broadened? I don't quite know the way the record companies set it up, but I'm sure that a band like Cream had more than 11 hits ( although I don't exactly know, because after all, I wasn't around thirty years ago).

Do yourselves a favour, and stay away from this release. It's nothing more than a blatent attempt to garner a couple extra bucks from the dull (i.e. me) record buying populace. Like I said, don't give these guys the satisfaction of knowing that their stupid plan worked. It's best to stay away and invest in a legitimate Cream hits disc anyways.

It replaces it's previously Strange Brew: The Very Best Of from 1983 a bare bone collection compilation with a mixed version to the studio and live tracks on it no doubt. Since it is out of print in the U.S. But not here from Canada still available on CD & cassette where I live. Great song classics like "Sunshine Of Your Love", "I Feel Free" and "Crossroads". By one of the 20th centuries most popular british psychedelic groups of all-time ever formed as CREAM with Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker. A great millennium masters series. But I also recommend is The Very Best complete anthology just in case if you might change your mind!

This band had a unique sound.I originaly got into this band because Kiss always mentioned this band as one of their favorite bands.As i am a huge Kiss fan,i am curious at time to listen to their musical origins.

I knew Sunshine of your love and White Room.But the rest were not known at all to me.So i decided to get a copy of their best.

Man i was not disappointed.Got right into it and couldnt stop playing it.Some songs seem to be addictive,probably recorded them on tapes made out of hippy weed.

This collection is a must for fans of Clapton, Bruce, and Baker and the great rock of the late 60s. .Great stuff this,and i reccommend this band.

When you look at it, Cream is the perfect band for a Millennium Collection. They are truly Twentieth Century Masters, and their career was brief enough to cover in just a few tracks. Every song included here is truly classic, which is nice as Best of Cream had a couple lesser tracks (Wrapping Paper, I'm So Glad) that are left off here. I understand the Millennium Collections tend to be short, but where's Swablr? But the tracks are strong (particullarly Crossroads, White Room, N.S.U and Sunshine of Your Love), and the cover photo's a lot better than Best Of's trippy one.

Like the reviewer before me, I bought this as my first Cream album, my intro if you will. The only song I had heard was "White Room" and I fell in love with it, and I gotta say, I certainly was not let down by the rest of the set. This is good, classic music, but this album has only the popular, have-to-have songs. This is fine for the casual listener, but a real fan will find, slowly, that you want more. My next endeavor will be the Those Were The Days box set, which contains every album, plus some unreleased and rare stuff. I'm giving this album 4 stars not because of the music itself (that would be 5 stars), but because of the dismal number of songs you get and what they actaully are. It could be better. I'm not asking for the world here, just a tad bit more.