“I’m Quitting”: The Pop Album That Almost Kept Cream From Forming in the Late 1960s

Some Cream influences are easy to spot. American Delta blues musicians, Chuck Berry, and so on. But as it turns out, there was an entirely different band threatening to prevent Cream from ever forming in the first place based on sheer intimidation factor alone: the sun-soaked, West Coast pop of The Beach Boys.

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In a 1998 interview with Bob Mills, Eric Clapton recalled what it was like hearing The Beach Boys for the first time. While at a gig with either The Yardbirds or John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, “I Get Around” started playing through the house speakers. “I was like, ‘It’s over,’” Clapton said. “Because my first reaction is always, ‘I’m quitting.’”

By the summer of 1966, Clapton had moved on from both bands and debuted his new project, Cream, alongside Jack Bruce on bass and Ginger Baker on drums. Meanwhile, The Beach Boys had just released what would prove to be their seminal album, Pet Sounds.

The Beach Boys Were a Major Influence for Cream

Songs like “White Room” and “Sunshine Of Your Love” are a far cry from The Beach Boys’ musical fare—though the latter could definitely be an early 60s Beach Boys single. But in a strange sequence of musical alchemy, this West Coast surf pop guided the British rock ‘n’ roll supergroup to their own signature sound.

“Believe it or not, that became the prime influence for a lot of the songwriting,” Eric Clapton told Bob Mills in 1998. “We couldn’t get it. But we would listen to that album nonstop. ‘God Only Knows’. ‘I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times’. Some of the songs on that record.”

Cream was hardly the only British rock band that The Beach Boys eventually influenced. Paul McCartney and the rest of The Beatles were also fans of the California pop group. (McCartney has pointed out “God Only Knows” when praising The Beach Boys, too.) To the Brits across the pond, this sound was almost exotic with its sunny romanticism, sappy sentimentality, and catchy melodies.

Interestingly, this West Coast-to-United Kingdom pipeline was happening in reverse, too. American music fans were learning what a real band could look like through groups like The Beatles. By the late 1960s, these British groups, who were once inspired by The Beach Boys, had effectively pushed them out of the charts.

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