887 Cream “I’m So Glad” 1966

“Cream made its official debut on July 31, 1966, before a crowd of 20,000 at Britain’s 6th National Jazz & Blues Festival. Robert Stigwood, whose other primary client was the Bee Gees, managed the group. Cream signed a five-year recording contract with the Reaction label for a reported 50,000 pounds (more than $150,000). In the United States, Cream was signed to Atlantic Records, where label head Ahmet Ertegun was determined to make a star out of the man he considered Cream’s chief asset, Eric Clapton. ‘[We] are tired of having talent that doesn’t make any big money,’ said Clapton, who was twenty-one years old. ‘Personally, I’d like some big money. I’ve lived in dingy rooms long enough. I’ve given all I’ve had to make music. Now I want something back’” (John Milward, How the Blues Shaped Rock ’n’ Roll and Rock Saved the Blues, 2013). 

Cream “I’m So Glad”