Cream
Wheels of Fire
Cream's platinum double album the Rolling Stone founder dismissed as weak songwriting
Released in the US on 14 June 1968, Wheels of Fire became the world's first platinum-selling double album. A contemporary hostile review by Rolling Stone founder Jann S. Wenner, alongside chart results with their dates.
The verdict at the time
Wenner opened with 'Cream is good at a number of things; unfortunately song-writing and recording are not among them,' singling out 'White Room' as a 'too-close duplication' of 'Tales of Brave Ulysses' and dismissing most of the studio disc, while praising the live tracks 'Crossroads' and 'Spoonful'.
Chart peaks
European positions are listed by country. Later chart entries are labelled separately.
Sources & context
One critic's opinion, summarised from Jann S. Wenner's original Rolling Stone review of July 1968. The album is now recognised as a classic of the psychedelic rock era and appears on Rolling Stone's greatest-albums lists.
