Track Listing

1. I Feel Free - Cream
2. Sunshine of Your Love - Cream
3. White Room - Cream
4. Crossroads - Cream
5. Badge - Cream
6. Presence of the Lord - Blind Faith
7. Blues Power
8. After Midnight
9. Let It Rain
10. Bell Bottom Blues - Derek & the Dominos
11. Layla - Derek & the Dominos
12. I Shot the Sheriff
13. Let It Grow
14. Knockin' on Heaven's Door
15. Hello Old Friend
16. Cocaine
17. Wonderful Tonight
18. Promises
19. I Can't Stand It

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5348 in Music
• Released on: 1995-03-07
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced

Amazon.com

Eric Clapton Merchandise

Amazon.com
For a single disc, this is an admirable chronological tour of superstar Eric Clapton's mid-'60s-to-early-'80s career. It begins too late to include his gestational work with the Yardbirds and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. However, the singer-guitarist's days in Cream ("Sunshine of Your Love," "Crossroads," "White Room"), in Blind Faith ("Presence of the Lord"), as a fledgling solo artist ("After Midnight," "Let It Rain"), in Derek and the Dominos ("Layla," "Bell Bottom Blues"), and through the rest of the '70s ("I Shot the Sheriff," "Cocaine," "Wonderful Tonight," "Promises") to his '81 hit "I Can't Stand It" are well documented by this collection's 19 cuts. The down side is that the CD also vividly illustrates how insubstantial Clapton's work turned in the mid-'70s. But that won't be a problem for fans seeking hits. --Ted Drozdowski

Customer Reviews

An Excellent Clapton Compilation!
Clapton has a few diferent "best of" CDs, but this is the best. Clapton has an incredible amount of good material. This CD, however, covers most of the very best. It covers some of his songs with Cream. I would reccomend buying Strange Brew: The Very Best of Cream, also. It has some of the best songs from Blind Faith and Derek And The Dominos, including Layla. Finally, it does a great job of covering alot of his solo songs up to 1980. Even though he has had alot of great stuff since then, the 60s and 70s were Clapton's best years. If you want one CD by Clapton, this is the one to buy.

Like cream, it skims the very best of Eric Clapton very well
****1/2

It is very hard to represent the very best of Clapton's career on one CD. However, this CD does a very excellent job of doing just that.

First, this compilation only covers the Polydor years (from I Feel Free by Cream up to I Can't Stand It from 1981). Therefore, later hits like Forever Man, and I've Got A Rock and Roll Heart (Warner Brothers) are not included.

Only one hit of any consequence is missing: Lay Down Sally. Strange Brew would have also been welcome, and After Midnight is presented as a single edit due to time constraints (the disc runs over 79 minutes.

Excellent liner notes plus superb sound makes this the one choice to own if you want only one Clapton CD.

The best single-disc overview of Eric Clapton's career
"The Cream Of Clapton" chronicles Eric Clapton's 15-year stay with Polydor, and these 19 songs offer a very good overview of that period (1966-81), even if several good songs are obviously missing. But the CD runs for all of 79 minutes, and all the must-have classics are here: "Layla", "Bell Bottom Blues", "Wonderful Tonight", "Knockin' On Heaven's Door", "Blues Power", "Let It Grow" and five Cream tracks as well.

If you just want the very best (up until 1981, that is), this CD is a fine choice. It may even make you want to pick up the magnificent live album "Eric Clapton's Rainbow Concert" and the superb box set "Crossroads"!