Cream: reissue of "Wheels Of Fire" coming with unreleased tracks and rarities

Nearly sixty years after its release, "Wheels Of Fire" is coming back in a new expanded edition that reframes its genesis and content through material that had long remained in the shadows. The double album by the Cream, originally released on 14 June 1968, struck a balance between studio experimentation and live impact, while also coinciding with the band's final phase: just a few weeks after its release in the United States, the trio announced their breakup, while British fans had to wait until August for the official release.

The new "Super Deluxe" edition stands out for its significant archival work. The original mono tapes, believed lost for decades, have been recovered, and the stereo version has been restored, removing the Haeco-CSG process that had altered its sound at the time to make it compatible with mono systems.

A central element of the project is the recovery of Felix Pappalardi's personal archive; as producer, he was a key figure in shaping the band's sound. In the early 1970s, Pappalardi accidentally left a substantial number of tapes in a Greenwich Village apartment. That material, containing outtakes, alternate mixes and recording sessions, later passed through the hands of collectors and researchers before being acquired and digitized by Bill Levenson and Johnny Chandler after years of searching.

Formed in London in 1966, Cream are often cited as the first true supergroup in rock history, thanks to the union of three already established musicians: Jack Bruce, Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker. Despite commercial success — "Wheels Of Fire" was the first double album to go platinum — internal tensions and the lack of a shared direction quickly brought the project to an end.

The album was recorded between London and the United States starting in the summer of 1967. The second disc of the original set documented the band's live activity instead, featuring performances at the Winterland Ballroom and the Fillmore in San Francisco. Among these, the version of "Crossroads" remains one of the most scrutinized for Clapton's solo, which has since entered the guitar canon of rock.

Originally released as both a creative peak and a document of a band already coming apart, "Wheels Of Fire" still stands as an effective synthesis of the power trio's language and its evolution across blues, psychedelia and electric improvisation. The new edition, available as a five-CD set and on triple vinyl, broadens the picture with a documentary apparatus that gives greater depth to one of the most significant works of British rock from the late Sixties.

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