With elements of hard rock and psychedelia, it is one of Cream's best known and most popular songs.
Cream bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce based it on a distinctive bass riff he developed "almost in a fit of desperation" after working unsuccessfully all night on creating a song with his writing partner, lyricist Pete Brown who muttered, "It's getting near dawn and lights close their tired eyes". Guitarist/vocalist Eric Clapton said in a 1988 interview that Bruce created the riff after attending a Jimi Hendrix concert. Clapton later contributed to the song, and drummer Ginger Baker plays a distinctive tom-tom drum rhythm. The song is sung as a duet with Bruce and Clapton trading the lead from line to line.
The song was included on Disraeli Gears, Cream's best-selling album, in November 1967. 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 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".
Composition
In early 1967, Cream were writing and rehearsing songs for a second album. Their December 1966 debut album, Fresh Cream, had been a mix of updated blues numbers and pop-oriented rock songs. Inspired by recent developments in rock music, the group began pursuing a more overtly psychedelic direction. "Sunshine of Your Love" began as a bass phrase or riff developed by Cream bassist Jack Bruce. Bruce tended to write songs with lyricist Pete Brown during the night as that was the only time they had to spare within the band's tour schedule. In 2009, Bruce's biographer, Harry Shapiro, wrote that "after one particularly difficult night" they were struggling to create something,
Cream guitarist Eric Clapton, in a 1988 Rolling Stone magazine interview, told the story that Cream attended a concert on 29 January 1967 by the Jimi Hendrix Experience at the Saville Theatre in London, and that "after the gig he [Bruce] went home and came up with the riff. It was strictly a dedication to Jimi. And then we wrote a song on top of it.
Music writers Covach and Boone describe the riff as blues-derived, using a minor blues pentatonic scale with an added flattened fifth note (or common blues scale). The song follows a blues chord progression (I–IV–I) during the first eight bars. Later, to break up the rhythm, Clapton wrote a refrain which also yielded the song's title. 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 [about 20 watts] or Twins [about 80 watts]—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 blues-based material like that to be found on Fresh Cream. Jerry Wexler, Ertegun's Atlantic Records partner, reportedly went as far as to call it "psychedelic hogwash".
With Pappalardi and Dowd, work continued on "Sunshine of Your Love". For his guitar solo, Clapton used a sound known as the "woman tone", which is described as "smooth, dark, singing, sustaining", by author Mitch Gallagher. The actual guitar that Clapton used has been identified as a 1964 Gibson SG, known as "the Fool". 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).
It entered Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart on 13 January 1968, reaching number 36 during its initial 14-week run. The record re-entered the chart on 6 July 1968 and reached number five on 31 August 1968. In the UK, the single was not released until September 1968, after Cream had announced their impending breakup. Polydor Records issued the UK single, which reached number 25 in the charts.
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! scope="row" | Canada RPM 100
|3
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! scope="row" |Dutch Charts
|17
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! scope="row" |UK Singles Chart
|25
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! scope="row" |US Billboard Hot 100
|5
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! scope="row" | US Cash Box Top Singles
|6
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|}
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+1968 year-end charts
! scope="col" |Chart
! scope="col" |Rank
! scope="col" class="unsortable" |
|-
! scope="row" | Canada RPM Top Singles
|21
|
|-
! scope="row" | US Billboard Top 100 Singles
|6
|
|}
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified the single gold on 26 September 1968, signifying sales in excess of 1,000,000 copies. In the US, it became one of the best selling singles of 1968 and one of the best-selling at the time for the Atlantic group of labels. As one of Cream's most popular songs, several of the group's compilation albums include the full-length studio recording, such as Best of Cream, Heavy Cream, The Very Best of Cream, and the boxed set Those Were the Days.
Recognition and influence
In 2004, the song ranked number 65 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". In March 2005, Q magazine placed "Sunshine of Your Love" at number 19 on its list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Tracks Ever!" In 2009, VH1 included it at number 44 on its list of the "Top 100 Hard Rock Songs". The song is on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of the "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll".
Ertegun later admitted that, while his tastes ran more to Robert Johnson (Clapton had recorded Johnson's "Ramblin' on My Mind" with John Mayall, "Crossroads" with the Powerhouse, and "Four Until Late" with Cream), Cream's and Pappalardi's vision resulted in songs which had a much larger impact on the rock audiences of the time. Covach and Boone identified "Sunshine of Your Love" as foreshadowing future trends in rock:
Other recordings
Several live recordings of "Sunshine of Your Love" have been issued on Cream albums. The version peaked at number 22 in New Zealand on its debut week ending September 25, 1994.
Notes
Footnotes
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References