Cream was the first band made up of superstar musicians. They also played louder than most, improvised for extended periods, usually simultaneously, and came up with a few ageless classic songs. Cream is one of the greatest rock bands of all time.

And today, I am focusing on those memorable, era-defining songs. Truthfully, the trio didn’t hang around for long and, yes, many of its songs were elongated, blues improv exercises. Those are parts that I’ll choose to ignore. These are the 10 best songs by Cream.

The Greatest 10 Songs by Cream

10. “I’m So Glad”

Cream’s musicians were part of the jetset elite. Who knew who could drop by at rehearsal? A Beatle, or maybe Jimi Hendrix?

They were one of the first power trios, rendering the need for additional guitars, keyboards, or a separate frontman obsolete. Also, they prided themselves on being masters of the blues.

Eric Clapton, famously, had played in The Yardbyrds (before Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page) and John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers. For the latter, he had earned graffiti across London, labelling him as “God.”

But “I’m So Glad” is undoubtedly a pop song, even if legendary bluesman Skip James wrote it. This is catchy, tongue-in-cheek material about hard times.

Recording it on its debut, Cream proved that its musicians really knew the blues and could locate a pop hook when needed.

9. “Sitting On Top of the World”

Cream, like The Jimi Hendrix Experience, recorded a lot of songs during a brief career. To do that, the few originals required that they be with peppered with cover versions.

The great Howlin’ Wolf wrote “Sitting on Top of the World.” Cream’s version gave it a very nice pop polish and benefited from Clapton’s masterful playing.

Meanwhile, Howlin’ Wolf was left collecting checks for the very first time and wondering what these strange, colourfully-clothed kids liked about his songs so much.

8. “Strange Brew”

In fairness, some of Cream’s undeniable greatness hinged on the band being the first of its kind. What the supergroup realised was that classic blues already had enough pop and psychedelic elements to please a 1960s crowd. This was the era of guitar heroes and blues licks.

And like Led Zeppelin after them, copyright laws left Cream unmoved. “Strange Brew” is Clapton’s version of a blues standard, “Lawdy Mama.” But the sound is as good a representation of psychedelic-blues as ever there was one.

7. “Spoonful”

Clapton and the band didn’t just like the blues. Like The Rolling Stones‘ Brian Jones, they were students of it. That means that they knew precisely which songs needed covering.

“Spoonful” is one of the greatest blues numbers. Written by Willie Dixon and often performed by bands, the song allowed the band to extend it to over 20 minutes when playing live. It was, I presume, dubbed “The bathroom Break Song” by audiences. But, be that as it may, it’s a wonderful rendition.

6. “I Feel Free”

When your friends write songs like “Here Comes the Sun” or “Ruby Tuesday,” you likely feel inclined to join them in their pop pursuits.

“I Feel Free” was the first U.K. hit by the band. And the hippie-manoeuvring made critics and listeners go giddy over the band.

It set Cream up nicely for the future with pop, blues and plenty of improv to follow.

5. “We’re Going Wrong”

One of the best deep cuts in the Cream catalogue, “We’re Going Wrong”, is marvelously imaginative from a band that treated Robert Johnson chord progressions as the law.

This is a Jack Bruce composition. It’s unclear whether this is a breakup song or one about the impending Apocalypse. But it’s exactly that question that makes me come back to it.

4. “Sunshine of Your Love”

There are only a handful of guitar riffs that you could confidently mumble to a stranger, and they’d understand what it was. “Sunshine of Your Love” is one of them.

More than any other Cream song, this showed what a competent power trio could do. Clapton’s riff is the showpiece. But he and Jack Bruce trade vocals brilliantly. The melodies in the chorus are strong. And Ginger Baker’s elegant drumming gives the song its engine.

It’s one of the great songs of the era. It prefigures 70s hard-rock of the Black Sabbath variety. And, sometimes, when the band played it live, all three improved over each other to the point where the song became practically unrecognisable. Oh, sweet excess!

3. “Tales of Brave Ulysses”

Cream’s musicians certainly looked psychedelically inclined. This wasn’t so much a statement as a requirement to market the band in the late 1960s.

If “Tales of Brave Ulysses” sounds a little too sophisticated for a band that also whitelisted the song “Toad,” it’s because Martin Sharp wrote the lyrics.

With Clapton checking out a new gadget – the wah-wah pedal, and with Bruce trying to beam a message to the San Franciscan hippies, “Tales of Brave Ulysses” is one of the best songs of the era.

2. “Badge”

Respectable 1960s bands needed three things: to play the blues, to adopt psychedelia, and to cover a Beatles song. With Clapton getting his George Harrison to co-write “Badge,” Cream settled on the latter and made the trifecta.

And, to be fair, this is a truly inspired song. How can it not be? It arrives in Harrison’s most thriving time as a songwriter. It’s simple, highly memorable, and the melodies and chords work to create an instant classic.

But it could’ve been “GEDAB” instead. The name of the song refers to the chords being played. And, Harrison loved himself some “I Ching” free-form associations.

1. “White Room”

“White Room” is one of the best songs written by any band. And, apart from a handful of numbers, it is miles away from anything that Cream ever produced, or ever could have produced.

Once more, cleverly, outside writers were brought in. Pete Brown wrote the lyrics. Those inspired the tense, paranoid music that Jack Bruce created.

There are shades of psychedelic-blues, sure. But, unlike other Cream songs, little musical real estate is wasted here. Bruce’s voice, in particular, is booming.

In fact, “White Room” is so good that it must’ve convinced both Bruce and Clapton that solo careers were viable options. Meanwhile, Ginger Baker remained the undisputed king of rock drumming. He could manage.

The band was over within a year. Publicly, the musicians blamed the inability to hear themselves play over the others’ solos.

Fair point, but Cream remains the first great supergroup and power trio. “White Room” is one of the greatest songs of all time. And somewhere there must be a bootleg of it where Bruce, Clapton and Baker solo along for 12 hours straight.