20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Cream (Eco-Friendly Packaging) [Original recording remastered]

Cream | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 13, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Polydor / Umgd
• ASIN: B000NA1ZZ6
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #302,778 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

The 20th Century Masters series is the best-selling single-artist line in music history and is being re-released by Universal Music Enterprises (UMe) in its ground-breaking, environmentally-friendly packaging format. A first for the music industry, the standard package (both sleeve and tray) will be completely paper-recyclable, continuing the company's long-standing commitment to being "green."

To further reduce the amount of paper in the Eco-Pack, the CD booklet will no longer be offered. Official liner notes are easily accessible on the Internet at http://www.ilovethatsong.com/green.

UMe is the first North American music company to replace the traditional jewel case with recycled paperboard sleeves and the plastic tray with trays made from PaperFoam®, a new packaging technology from Shorewood Packaging, a business of International Paper, that is paper-recyclable and biodegradable. Shorewood Packaging is the first North American packaging supplier to produce disc trays from PaperFoam®.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great Band, Poor Compilation, July 30, 2004

By 

Will Culp (Greenville, South Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best of Cream: 20th Century Masters (Millennium Collection) (Audio CD)

20th Century Masters- The Best of Cream(2000). Cream's Second Compilation.

Throughout the Late 60's, Cream, one of Rock's finest Rock Trios, emerged on the fledging Rock Music scene. After leaving the Yardbirds, legendary guitarist Eric Clapton teamed up with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker to shell out some of the finest Blues Rock albums ever, from Cream's Psychadelic debut,'Fresh Cream', to the huge success of 'Disraeli Gears', and the finale of 'Goodbye'. Throughout the years, Cream has been remembered for huge hits such as 'Sunshine Of Your Love' and 'White Room', plus numerous other hit singles, so it's no surprise that 20th Century Masters has released a compilation for Cream. So, like every other 20th Century Masters compilation, does this one suck, or is surprisingly good for someone on a budget? Read on to find out!

PROS-

-CASUAL FANS GET ALL OF CREAMS BIGGEST HITS!- Here you can find such huge hits as 'I Feel Free', 'N.S.U.','Sunshine Of Your Love', 'White Room', and 'Crossroads'.
-YOU GET UNDERRATED MASTERPIECES TOO!- On this compilation you get such underrated Cream masterpieces as 'Sweet Wine', 'Spoonful', 'Strange Brew', 'Tales of Brave Ulysses', 'Politician', and 'Badge' for your listening pleasure.
-CHEAP!- Most stores have clearanced the 20th Century Masters compilations, so you can find them for very cheap prices.
-INCLUDES TRACKS FROM EVERY CREAM ALBUM!- The listener gets tracks from 'Fresh Cream', 'Wheels of Fire', 'Disraeli Gears', and 'Goodbye', making this a career-spanning retrospective!


CONS-
-MISSING WAY TOO MANY SONGS!- Like most 20th Century Masters compilations, there are way too many songs missing, such as "SWALBR," "Anyone for Tennis," "Wrapping Paper," "I'm So Glad," "Doing That Scrap Yard Thing," , and so many more!
-ONLY 40 MINUTES LONG!- As usual, 20th Century Masters feels it needs to infuriate the buyer by only filling up HALF the time they could have, and put so many more songs in!
-OTHER CREAM COMPILATIONS ARE TONS BETTER!- 'The Cream of Clapton' and 'The Very Best of Cream' are significantly better than 20th Century Masters-The Best of Cream, and for shelling out a few more dollars, you could get twice the amount of music that's here, making this compilation inferior.


Overall, '20th Century Masters- The Best of Cream' is only for casual fans who only want Cream's biggest hits, and are on an extreme budget. This compilation is missing way too many songs, and 'The Very Best of Cream' and 'The Cream of Clapton' put this one to shame.

NOT RECOMMENDED! INSTEAD PICK UP 'THE VERY BEST OF CREAM' OR 'THE CREAM OF CLAPTON', BECAUSE THEY AREN'T NEARLY AS SCATTERSHOT AS THIS AND YOU GET A LOT MORE FOR YOUR MONEY!

Recommended Instead-

The Very Best of Cream- Cream
Disraeli Gears-Cream
Mrs. Johnson and Me- Eric Clapton

Thanks For Reading!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great music, Bad CD..., July 16, 2001

By 

Brian (Oot) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best of Cream: 20th Century Masters (Millennium Collection) (Audio CD)

Against my better judgement, I bought this record to be my first foray into Cream (I'm fourteen, so I'm still catching up on rock's golden years). Despite my reservations after buying the '20th Century Masters' disc of The Who - a disc that, despite the good music had poor track selection, was too short and had only a one page, poorly written biography - I went ahead and bought the same series of disc, only of not The Who, but of Cream. After all, I was saving nearly $15 by buying this one as opposed to 'Strange Brew' or one of the other complete greatest hits discs available. But, my bargain hunting mode just kicked in, and I bought the '20th Century Masters' greatest hits instead of one of the others. As soon as I got the receipt, I was kicking myself.

You see, apparantly the big thing these days for the big multi-million dollar corporations is ripping off it's customers - in most cases the customers that have been loyal to them from day one, even the ones who stood by them during the entire music software deal (like me). I have no problem with record companies' normal purpose, but when they begin doing something like this, it becomes mildly disheartening. They even have the formula for doing it down pat. Take a band's real greatest hits disc, drop everything but the MEGA hits, add a poorly written one page biography (complete, often with historical inaccuracies), and slap the thing onto a bargain bin shelf for $7.99 (Cdn.).

The music itself, however, shines through all this. This being my introduction to Cream other than a couple of covers of 'Sunshine Of Your Love' by Jimi Hendrix that I've heard on his BBC Sessions disc (as well as a few concert bootlegs, but we're not going to delve into detail), I was quite impressed. Although, I admit, at first, only three or four songs actually impressed me. But, alas, I'm seldom accurate on my first listen, so I went back and went through it a few more times.

After I did this, I realized that there were more than just a few great songs. To be fair, nearly everything on the CD is excellent. Eric Clapton shines on the guitar, varying his approach to it throughout - sometimes playing it straight and sometimes drenching it in wah. Jack Bruce's bass and vocals are also excellent, as are Ginger Baker's drums. From the first to the final track, the music speaks for itself. Powerful, emotive, and superbly entertaining music from the music world's first power trio.

However, everything else, like I've mentioned isn't so bright. The one page biography of the band is written fairly poorly, and, if I'm not mistaken, contains one or more inaccuracies. The few photos displayed through the liner notes are also poorly selected, with most (if not all) of them stemming from the band's original albums themselves.

In addition, the song selection is poor. The band had a lot more great songs that were dropped from this release. I just wonder to myself how in the hell one greatest hits album can have 17 or so songs, while this one has 11. Is the definition of 'greatest hits' broadened? I don't quite know the way the record companies set it up, but I'm sure that a band like Cream had more than 11 hits ( although I don't exactly know, because after all, I wasn't around thirty years ago).

Do yourselves a favour, and stay away from this release. It's nothing more than a blatent attempt to garner a couple extra bucks from the dull (i.e. me) record buying populace. Like I said, don't give these guys the satisfaction of knowing that their stupid plan worked. It's best to stay away and invest in a legitimate Cream hits disc anyways.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This disc is essential for beginners, regardless..., June 29, 2005

By 

Leslie Karen Rigsbey "Leslie Rigsbey" (WOOD RIVER, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Best of Cream: 20th Century Masters (Millennium Collection) (Audio CD)

I never really thought of Eric Clapton as a 'heavy-metal' guitar player, but then again that term meant something else back when these records first came out. Also, Jack Bruce is a pretty good singer, and the melodic poetry of the lyrics and the mostly understandable renditions shocked me from what was supposed to be a hard and heavy group. My favorite song is "Crossroads"-that's just ultimate must-have blues. "White Room" and "Badge" are cool too, and I remember the days when KLOU 103.3 used to play these tracks as rock'n'roll oldies--well, those days psychedelia didn't hold any connotations, so it was all good. I just wish we could get all those great oldies back, but I think they are starting to. This disc has a beautiful sound, and I kind of like Cream better than the Who now, but please don't confuse Eric Clapton with Jimi Hendrix. (Okay, they're both great, but...)