Disraeli Gears

Cream's American label Atco was a subsidiary of Atlantic, and the band first recorded at Atlantic's New York studio on 3 April 1967 with label owner Ahmet Ertegun, cutting a cover of Lawdy Mama. Encouraged, Ertegun booked more time, and the bulk of the album was made there between 11 and 15 May with Felix Pappalardi as producer and Tom Dowd as engineer. Demos of SWLABR, Blue Condition and We're Going Wrong had been made at Ryemuse Studios in London on 15 March. According to Dowd the New York sessions took three and a half days, because the band's visas expired on the last day of recording.

The work was quick. The band recorded one or two takes of a backing track and added few overdubs, even though an Ampex 8-track recorder was available. Visitors dropped in, among them Linda Eastman, Al Kooper and Janis Joplin, and a visitor named Jenny Dean supplied many of the party sounds on Take It Back. Pappalardi took the April tape of Lawdy Mama, added new lyrics he wrote with his wife Gail Collins, and made Strange Brew, the first track finished. The Pappalardi team also wrote World of Pain. Ertegun disliked the psychedelic material and balked at the idea of Bruce or Baker singing lead, but relented after resistance from the group.

The singing was shared more than on Fresh Cream. Clapton sang lead on Strange Brew and Outside Woman Blues and shared it on World of Pain, Dance the Night Away and Sunshine of Your Love. Baker sang his own Blue Condition, and all three joined on Mother's Lament, a mock-English pub singalong from the end of sessions. Dance the Night Away is the one Cream recording with 12-string guitars, which Clapton said was Bruce's tribute to the Byrds. Take It Back was inspired by images of American students burning draft cards, with Bruce on harmonica.

Martin Sharp, who lived in the same building as Clapton in Chelsea, made the cover from a publicity shot, cutouts and fluorescent inks, aiming to catch the warm, electric sound of the music. Bob Whitaker took the photographs, most of them in July 1967 in Hyde Park and the Scottish Highlands, some on Ben Nevis. Baker said the title came from the roadie Mick Turner, who said Disraeli gears when he meant derailleur gears.

The album reached number 5 in Britain and number 4 in the United States, and Cash Box ranked it the number 1 album of 1968 in its year-end chart. Melody Maker called it a quality-heavy package of Cream superpower, while Rolling Stone said it did not totally hang together. Writing for the BBC in 2007, Chris Jones described SWLABR, Dance the Night Away and Sunshine of Your Love as perfect encapsulations of the point where the blues got psychedelic and in turn got heavy, and called Strange Brew a contender for best album opener of all time. It entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999, and Rolling Stone ranked it 112 in 2003, 114 in 2012 and 170 in 2020. A two-disc Deluxe Edition appeared in 2004.