Cream – Sunshine of Your Love

“Sunshine of Your Love” – Single by Cream from the album Disraeli Gears
B-side “SWLABR”
Released November 1967 (album), December 1967 (US single), September 1968 (UK single)
Label Reaction/Polydor (UK) Atco (US)
Composers Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton
Lyricist Pete Brown
Producer Felix Pappalardi
Charted No.5 in US; No.25 in UK; No.22 in Australia; No.3 in Canada

This psychedelic rock classic has a lyric written by Pete Brown, a beat poet who was friends with Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce of Cream. Eric Clapton – the guitarist and most famous member of Cream – wrote the music along with Jack Bruce.

The song was included on Cream’s best-selling second album Disraeli Gears 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.

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”.