White Room#Deep Purple version
{{Other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Infobox song
| name = White Room
| cover = White Room - Cream (Norwegian single sleeve).jpg
| alt =
| caption = Italian single picture sleeve
| type = single
| artist = Cream
| album = Wheels of Fire
| B-side = Those Were the Days
| released =
- {{Start date|1968|08}} (album)
- September 1968 (US single)
- January 1969 (UK single)
| format =
| recorded = July 1967 – April 1968
| studio = Atlantic, New York City
| genre =
- Psychedelic rock
- blues rock{{Cite web |last=Erlewine |first=Stephen Thomas |author-link=Stephen Thomas Erlewine |title=Cream: White Room{{snd}}Review |url=https://www.allmusic.com/song/white-room-mt0006255493 |access-date=4 March 2020 |website=AllMusic}}
- hard rock
| length =
- 3:04 (US single)
- {{Duration|4:58}} (album & UK single)
| label =
| composer = Jack Bruce
| lyricist = Pete Brown
| producer = Felix Pappalardi
| chronology = Cream US
| prev_title = Anyone for Tennis
| prev_year = 1968
| next_title = Crossroads
| next_year = 1969
| misc = {{Extra chronology
| artist = Cream UK
| type = single
| prev_title = Sunshine of Your Love
| prev_year = 1968
| title = White Room
| year = 1969
| next_title = Badge
| next_year = 1969
}}
{{Audio sample
| type = single
| file = Wheels of Fire - White Room Cream clip.ogg
| description = Intro and part of first verse
}}
}}
"White Room" is a song by British rock band Cream, composed by bassist Jack Bruce with lyrics by poet Pete Brown.{{Gilliland |https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19835/m1/ |Show 53 - String Man. : UNT Digital Library}} They recorded it for the studio half of the 1968 double album Wheels of Fire. In September, a shorter US single edit (without the third verse) was released for AM radio stations,{{Cite magazine |last= |date=21 September 1968 |title=Spotlight Singles |magazine=Billboard |location=Cincinnati, Ohio |page=72}} although album-oriented FM radio stations played the full album version. The subsequent UK single release in January 1969 used the full-length album version of the track.
Recording and composition
Jack Bruce came up with music for the song as a tribute to Jimi Hendrix, and was later surprised when Hendrix visited the group in New York as they were recording it and commented "I wish I could write something like that", only to be told it had been directly inspired by him.{{cite web |last1=Hopper |first1=Alex |title=Meaning Behind the Jimi Hendrix-Inspired White Room by Cream |url=https://americansongwriter.com/meaning-behind-the-jimi-hendrix-inspired-white-room-by-cream/ |website=American Songwriter |date=23 August 2023 |access-date=September 10, 2024}} Lyricist Pete Brown's original idea for the song revolved around a hippie girl titled "Cinderella's Last Goodnight", but when that did not work, he dipped into an earlier eight page poem he had written about a new apartment he had moved into with white walls and bare furnishings, where he gave up drinking and drugs. The personal demons he battled while living in the white room spawned the imagery of the poem, which was eventually whittled down to a few verses for the song lyric.
In July 1967, at the initial sessions for Cream's third album (then still unnamed), recording for "White Room" began in London. In October and December work continued at Atlantic Studios in New York City and was completed during three sessions in February, April and June 1968, also at Atlantic.{{Cite book |last=Hjort |first=Christopher |url=https://archive.org/details/strangebrewericc00hjor/page/ |title=Strange Brew: Eric Clapton & the British Blues Boom, 1965-1970 |publisher=Jawbone Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-906002-00-8 |location=London, UK |pages=[https://archive.org/details/strangebrewericc00hjor/page/ g. 126, 148, 159, 181] |author-link=Christopher Hjort |url-access=registration}}Felix Pappalardi interview, Hit Parader # 55, February 1969
Jack Bruce sang and played bass on the song, Eric Clapton overdubbed guitar parts, Ginger Baker played drums and timpani, and Felix Pappalardi – the group's producer – contributed violas.{{Cite AV media notes |title=Wheels of Fire |others=Cream |year=1997 |type=CD liner |publisher=Polydor Records |id=531 812-2}} Clapton played his guitar through a wah-wah pedal to achieve a "talking-effect".{{Cite encyclopedia |year=1990 |title=Guitar Madness |encyclopedia=The Marshall Cavendish Illustrated History of Popular Music |publisher=Marshall Cavendish |last=Bacon |first=Tony |edition=Reference |volume=11 |page=1079 |isbn=978-1-8543-5015-2}} The song has an identical chord progression to Cream's previous recording "Tales of Brave Ulysses".{{cite web |last1=Greenwald |first1=Matthew |title=Tales of Brave Ulysses - Cream |url=https://www.allmusic.com/song/tales-of-brave-ulysses-mt0000483569 |website=AllMusic.com |access-date=6 May 2021 |language=en}} Both Bruce and Baker claimed to have added the distinctive {{music|time|5|4}} or quintuple metre opening to what had been a {{music|time|4|4}} or common time composition.{{Cite web |title=Classic Rock Magazine, March 2010 |url=http://archive.classicrockmagazine.com/view/march-2010/70/the-worlds-greatest-drummer-is-lying-flat-out-on-a-bed-in-a-west-london-hotel-room-when-the-man |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113034055/http://archive.classicrockmagazine.com/view/march-2010/70/the-worlds-greatest-drummer-is-lying-flat-out-on-a-bed-in-a-west-london-hotel-room-when-the-man |archive-date=13 November 2013}} Bruce later revealed that the {{music|time|5|4}} opening had made the record company wary that it would do well commercially.
Credits
- Jack Bruce – lead vocals, bass, songwriter
- Eric Clapton – lead and rhythm guitars
- Ginger Baker – drums, timpani
- Felix Pappalardi – violas, producer
- Pete Brown – songwriter
Recognition and other recordings
{{more citations needed|section|date=July 2018}}
Rolling Stone ranked "White Room" at number 376 on its list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". A live recording appears on the group's Live Cream Volume II album (1972). Clapton, along with Phil Collins, began his act at Live Aid in 1985 with the song. In 1990, Clapton performed the song at his Royal Albert Hall concert series and in 1999 with Sheryl Crow at Crow's Sheryl Crow and Friends: Live from Central Park concert. In 2005, the reunited Cream played the song at the Royal Albert Hall, which was released on their Royal Albert Hall London May 2-3-5-6, 2005 album.
In a song review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted that the song has been "covered frequently, and by a bizarre group of artists: Broadway star Joel Grey, the Finnish symphonic metal band Apocalyptica, fusion guitarist Frank Gambale, the Bluegrass-inspired Cache Valley Drifters, and heavy metal band Helloween. That wildly eclectic list proves that 'White Room' is a multi-faceted song, containing equal parts dramatic spectacle, intricate musicality, and hard rock menace. Other artists emphasize different elements in their interpretations, but the original Cream version wrapped it all up in one startling package".
Billboard described the single as a "solid, driving rocker".{{cite news|newspaper=Billboard|accessdate=2021-02-22|date=September 21, 1968|page=72|title=Spotlight Singles|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/60s/1968/Billboard%201968-09-21.pdf}}
Charts
=Weekly charts=
=Year-end charts=
| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" |
| scope="col"| Chart (1968)
! scope="col"| Rank |
|---|
| scope="row"|Canada{{Cite web |title=Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada |url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?brws_s=1&file_num=nlc008388.5867&type=1&interval=24&PHPSESSID=mhe12pta2k83e08udtq66ot062 |website=collectionscanada.gc.ca}}
| style="text-align:center;"|39 |
| scope="row"|US Billboard Hot 100{{Cite web |title=Top 100 Hits of 1968/Top 100 Songs of 1968 |url=https://www.musicoutfitters.com/topsongs/1968.htm |website=www.musicoutfitters.com}}
| style="text-align:center;"|81 |
| scope="row"|US Cash Box{{Cite web |title=Cash Box YE Pop Singles - 1968 |url=https://tropicalglen.com/Archives/60s_files/1968YESP.html |website=tropicalglen.com}}
| style="text-align:center;"|48 |
Certifications
{{Certification Table Top}}
{{Certification Table Entry|region=United Kingdom|type=single|artist=Cream|title=White Room|award=Silver|relyear=2004|certyear=2021|id=17206-66-1|access-date=4 May 2021}}
{{Certification Table Bottom|nosales=true|noshipments=true|streaming=true}}
Deep Purple version
A version of the track was featured on Deep Purple's 2021 covers album Turning to Crime.[https://www.guitarworld.com/news/deep-purple-turning-to-crime Deep Purple announce new covers album, Turning To Crime, premiere hard-rocking version of Love's 7 and 7 Is]. Guitar World. 6 October 2021. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
=Personnel=
- Ian Gillan – lead and backing vocals
- Roger Glover – bass
- Ian Paice – drums
- Steve Morse – guitar
- Don Airey – keyboards
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Cream}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Songs written by Jack Bruce
Category:Number-one singles in Australia
Category:Song recordings produced by Felix Pappalardi