Editing Fresh Cream (section)

==Songs and recording==
Almost as soon as Cream were formed in July 1966, they entered Rayrik Studios at Chalk Farm, London, to begin work on their debut single and album with [[Robert Stigwood]] producing and John Timperley as engineer. Clapton later noted that the budget was minuscule, working with four track machines and basically running each song a few times through until they got a satisfactory take, with minimal overdubbing afterward.<ref>{{cite web |title=Eric Clapton (1993) on the making of Fresh Cream: We were not taking it seriously at all |url=https://www.youtube.com/live/9ddBla1CqHs?app=desktop |website=YouTube |access-date=September 8, 2024}}</ref> The first sessions at Rayrik on August 3 produced the outtakes "Coffee Song", "You Make Me Feel" and "Beauty Queen", followed later in the month by the group's debut single "[[Wrapping Paper]]", a music hall influenced piece designed to showcase the group's stylistic versatility, but which was received with puzzlement upon its October release by fans expecting a [[blues]]-oriented sound. 

After the band moved to Ryemuse Studios (now known as [[Mayfair Studios|Mayfair]]), the bulk of the album was recorded between September and November, neatly divided between old blues covers ("[[Spoonful]]", "Cat's Squirrel", "[[Rollin' And Tumblin']]", "[[I'm So Glad]]", "[[From Four Until Late|Four Until Late]]") and original material penned by bassist [[Jack Bruce]], with two contributions by [[Ginger Baker]] ("Sweet Wine" and his groundbreaking extended drum solo "[[Toad (instrumental)|Toad]]") and two by Bruce's first wife [[Janet Godfrey]], who co-wrote "Sleepy Time Time" with Jack and "Sweet Wine" with Ginger. A session in September also produced the single "[[I Feel Free]]" (included on the US version of the album), the first product of the songwriting team of Jack Bruce and bohemian poet [[Pete Brown]] which proved a more typical representation of their sound than "Wrapping Paper"; released on the same day as the album, it climbed to No. 11 in the UK charts.<ref name=super/> 

Bruce later said that the opening song "N.S.U." was written for the band's first rehearsal. "It was like an early [[punk rock|punk]] song... the title meant "[[Non-gonococcal urethritis|non-specific urethritis]]. It didn't mean an [[NSU Quickly]] – which was one of those little 1960s mopeds. I used to say it was about a member of the band who had this [[sexually transmitted disease|venereal disease]]. I can't tell you which one... except [[Eric Clapton|he played guitar]]."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OptMAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT88|title=Cream: The Legendary Sixties Supergroup |first1=Chris|last1=Welch|date=1 December 2000|publisher=Backbeat Books|isbn=9781476851501}}</ref> The mellow pop of "Dreaming" showcased Bruce's ghostly falsetto vocal style, which was also used on "I Feel Free" and would become more prominent on later releases. Clapton's lengthy, swirling solos on "Sweet Wine" and "Spoonful" pointed toward psychedelia and heavy metal, with Clapton employing much echo, fuzz and feedback,<ref name="erlewine1"/> which had been directly inspired by his first meeting with [[Jimi Hendrix]] on October 1.<ref name=super>{{cite book |last1=Thompson |first1=Dave |title=Cream: The World's First Supergroup |date=2005 |publisher=Virgin Books Ltd |location=London |isbn=1852272864}}</ref> Overall, the group's fusion of blues with [[hard rock]] and improvisational [[jazz]] on this record proved seminal on the development of rock music from that point forward.