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"Sunshine of Your Love" is a 1967 song by the British rock band Cream. With elements of hard rock, psychedelia, and pop, it is one of Cream's best-known and most popular songs. Cream bassist and vocalist Jack Bruce based it on a distinctive bass riff or repeated musical phrase he developed after attending a Jimi Hendrix concert. Guitarist Eric Clapton and lyricist Pete Brown later contributed to the song. Recording engineer Tom Dowd suggested the rhythm arrangement in which drummer Ginger Baker plays a distinctive tom-tom drum rhythm, although Baker has claimed it was his idea.
The song was included on Cream's second album Disraeli Gears in November 1967, which was a best seller. Atco Records, the group's American label, was initially unsure of the song's potential. After recommendations by other label-affiliated artists, it released an edited single version in January 1968 (or possibly December 1967). The song became Cream's first and highest charting American single and one of the most popular singles of 1968. In September 1968, it became a modest chart hit after being released in the UK.
Cream performed "Sunshine of Your Love" regularly in concert and several live recordings have been issued, including on the Royal Albert Hall London May 2-3-5-6, 2005 reunion album and video. Hendrix performed faster instrumental versions of the song, which he often dedicated to Cream. Several rock journals have placed the song on their greatest song lists, such as Rolling Stone, Q magazine, and VH1. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame included it on its list of the "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll".
Cream performed their first American concerts in New York City in 1967. Robert Stigwood, the group's manager, booked them for a Murray the K package show at the RKO Manhattan Theatre from 25 March to 2 April 1967. When it was finished, Stigwood arranged for a recording session with Ahmet Ertegun at Atlantic Studios. Bruce and Brown had a number of new songs in various stages of development and entered the studio on 3 April. Initially, Ertegun assigned Dowd to work with the trio. Dowd had worked with many of the biggest jazz and rhythm and blues musicians in the 1950s and 1960s. However, Cream was his first exposure to extreme volume levels. The group arrived at Atlantic with their concert setup of multiple Marshall amplifiers (each 100 watts). Dowd was surprised by the amount of equipment accompanying the trio: "They recorded at ear-shattering level ... Everyone I'd worked with before was using Fender Deluxes or Twins —six- and seven-piece bands that didn't play as loud as this three piece did."
Ertegun brought in producer Felix Pappalardi, who he believed could work as a go-between with the group and Dowd. They began with "Strange Brew", "Tales of Brave Ulysses", and "Sunshine of Your Love". Ertegun previewed the demos and was unhappy, expecting more blues-based material that was found on Fresh Cream. Jerry Wexler, Ertegun's Atlantic Records partner, reportedly went as far as to call it "psychedelic hogwash". However, Booker T. Jones (producer and keyboardist of Booker T. & the M.G.'s) and Otis Redding (both whose Stax recordings at the time were distributed by Atco parent Atlantic) gave "Sunshine of Your Love" their wholehearted approval. Differences were smoothed over by the time Cream returned in May 1967 to finish recording the songs for Disraeli Gears.
With Pappalardi and Dowd, work continued on "Sunshine of Your Love". For his guitar solo, Clapton used a sound known as the "woman tone" on his 1964 Gibson SG Standard. Author Mitch Gallagher describes it as a "smooth, dark, singing, sustaining sound". It is one of the best-known examples of the woman tone and quotes the melody from the perennial pop standard "Blue Moon". By using the song's major pentatonic scale, Clapton provides a contrast with the riff's blues scale. A writer for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes this as "creating a balance between the sun and the moon". Baker plays much of the song on the tom-toms, described as sounding African (Schumacher) and Native American (Shapiro). Covach and Boone note he "concentrates on the lower tom sounds and uses an articulation and sound reminiscent of the jazz drumming in the Woody Herman or Benny Goodman bands".
File Hashes
HASH1: 3BF01AAB54BC2323
HASH2: A3C5E82932B9F71B (MP3)
HASH1: F01F327EC36BD61B HASH2: BABAB31D69F4B22B (MP3)
HASH1: 69176AC65F94417A HASH2: 8E93A206A320AD95 (MP3)
HASH1: 5D75C74C7634BD90 HASH2: FA0AEF92155F85D9 (MP3)
Available in:
"Sunshine of Your Love" is a 1967 song by the British rock band Cream. With elements of hard rock, psychedelia, and pop, it is one of Cream's best-known and most popular songs. Cream bassist and vocalist Jack Bruce based it on a distinctive bass riff or repeated musical phrase he developed after attending a Jimi Hendrix concert. Guitarist Eric Clapton and lyricist Pete Brown later contributed to the song. Recording engineer Tom Dowd suggested the rhythm arrangement in which drummer Ginger Baker plays a distinctive tom-tom drum rhythm, although Baker has claimed it was his idea.
The song was included on Cream's second album Disraeli Gears in November 1967, which was a best seller. Atco Records, the group's American label, was initially unsure of the song's potential. After recommendations by other label-affiliated artists, it released an edited single version in January 1968 (or possibly December 1967). The song became Cream's first and highest charting American single and one of the most popular singles of 1968. In September 1968, it became a modest chart hit after being released in the UK.
Cream performed "Sunshine of Your Love" regularly in concert and several live recordings have been issued, including on the Royal Albert Hall London May 2-3-5-6, 2005 reunion album and video. Hendrix performed faster instrumental versions of the song, which he often dedicated to Cream. Several rock journals have placed the song on their greatest song lists, such as Rolling Stone, Q magazine, and VH1. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame included it on its list of the "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll".
Cream performed their first American concerts in New York City in 1967. Robert Stigwood, the group's manager, booked them for a Murray the K package show at the RKO Manhattan Theatre from 25 March to 2 April 1967. When it was finished, Stigwood arranged for a recording session with Ahmet Ertegun at Atlantic Studios. Bruce and Brown had a number of new songs in various stages of development and entered the studio on 3 April. Initially, Ertegun assigned Dowd to work with the trio. Dowd had worked with many of the biggest jazz and rhythm and blues musicians in the 1950s and 1960s. However, Cream was his first exposure to extreme volume levels. The group arrived at Atlantic with their concert setup of multiple Marshall amplifiers (each 100 watts). Dowd was surprised by the amount of equipment accompanying the trio: "They recorded at ear-shattering level ... Everyone I'd worked with before was using Fender Deluxes or Twins —six- and seven-piece bands that didn't play as loud as this three piece did."
Ertegun brought in producer Felix Pappalardi, who he believed could work as a go-between with the group and Dowd. They began with "Strange Brew", "Tales of Brave Ulysses", and "Sunshine of Your Love". Ertegun previewed the demos and was unhappy, expecting more blues-based material that was found on Fresh Cream. Jerry Wexler, Ertegun's Atlantic Records partner, reportedly went as far as to call it "psychedelic hogwash". However, Booker T. Jones (producer and keyboardist of Booker T. & the M.G.'s) and Otis Redding (both whose Stax recordings at the time were distributed by Atco parent Atlantic) gave "Sunshine of Your Love" their wholehearted approval. Differences were smoothed over by the time Cream returned in May 1967 to finish recording the songs for Disraeli Gears.
With Pappalardi and Dowd, work continued on "Sunshine of Your Love". For his guitar solo, Clapton used a sound known as the "woman tone" on his 1964 Gibson SG Standard. Author Mitch Gallagher describes it as a "smooth, dark, singing, sustaining sound". It is one of the best-known examples of the woman tone and quotes the melody from the perennial pop standard "Blue Moon". By using the song's major pentatonic scale, Clapton provides a contrast with the riff's blues scale. A writer for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes this as "creating a balance between the sun and the moon". Baker plays much of the song on the tom-toms, described as sounding African (Schumacher) and Native American (Shapiro). Covach and Boone note he "concentrates on the lower tom sounds and uses an articulation and sound reminiscent of the jazz drumming in the Woody Herman or Benny Goodman bands".
File Hashes
HASH1: 3BF01AAB54BC2323 HASH2: A3C5E82932B9F71B (MP3) HASH1: F01F327EC36BD61B HASH2: BABAB31D69F4B22B (MP3) HASH1: 69176AC65F94417A HASH2: 8E93A206A320AD95 (MP3) HASH1: 5D75C74C7634BD90 HASH2: FA0AEF92155F85D9 (MP3) Genre
Psychedelic Rock
Mood
Smooth
Style
Rock/Pop
Theme
...
Music Video
None
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None
Video Production Company
None
Music Video Screenshots
Status
UnlockedData Complete
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