It’s well known that Eric Clapton was inspired to form Cream after seeing blues legend Buddy Guy perform in London with a power trio.
What’s less widely known is that a very different influence helped shape the band’s songwriting — one that came from across the Atlantic.
“We were forming Cream when Pet Sounds came out,” Clapton recalled in a 1998 interview with Bob Mills. “And actually, believe it or not, that became the prime influence for a lot of the songwriting.”
Released in 1966 by the Beach Boys and masterminded by Brian Wilson, the album was about as far removed from British blues as a record could be. Built around layered harmonies and ornate pop arrangements, it fascinated Clapton and his future bandmates.
“We couldn't get it,” he said with a laugh. “But we would listen to that album nonstop.”
Clapton’s fascination with the Beach Boys actually began earlier. During a mid-’60s gig — while he was still playing with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers — he heard one of the group’s records playing over the venue’s sound system. It nearly made him leave Mayall.
“I was playing a gig with John Mayall, I think, and there was a DJ playing records,” Clapton recalled. “And he played ‘I Get Around.’ I was like, ‘It’s over,’ because my first reaction is always: ‘I’m quitting.’”
The moment came during a turbulent period in Clapton’s early career. After an unhappy stint with the Yardbirds, he briefly considered giving up music altogether before joining Mayall’s Bluesbreakers in 1965. His year with the band established him as Britain’s leading blues guitarist and gave rise to the Gibson Les Paul Standard — Clapton’s main electric guitar at that point — as a blues staple.
But even that situation wouldn’t hold for long.
After witnessing Guy perform with a power trio at London’s Marquee Club, Clapton began imagining a new kind of band.
“What that said to me was, ‘This was possible,’” he recalled years later. “It seemed to be so free — you could go anywhere.”
Clapton soon teamed up with bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker, forming Cream in 1966. But while the trio’s explosive blues improvisation became its signature, the band’s musical ambitions stretched further.
According to Bruce, that broader direction sometimes clashed with Clapton’s original idea.
“Eric thought he was going to have this little blues trio and be like Buddy Guy,” Bruce later said. “We had different ideas.”
Those ideas pushed Cream toward a far more colorful and experimental sound than a straightforward blues outfit — something later noted by musicians such as Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson, who cited the band as an early precursor to progressive rock.
And if Cream’s music occasionally sounded more kaleidoscopic than traditional blues might suggest, Clapton’s own admission points to an unlikely source of inspiration: Brian Wilson’s meticulously crafted pop.
