B-side "Cat's Squirrel" Format 7" Single Length 2:25 | Released October 1966 Genre Rhythm and blues, jazz | |
Recorded August 1966 at Chalk Farm | ||
"Wrapping Paper" is a song with music composed by Jack Bruce and lyrics by Pete Brown, performed by Cream and originally released as a single in 1966 with "Cat's Squirrel" as the B side.
Contents
Background
In contrast with the hard blues of other early Cream songs such as "N.S.U." and the psychedelic pop-style of "I Feel Free," it has a distinctive slow-jazz style. The song reflects the band's iconoclastic persona and refusal to fit into accepted and orthodox musical styles and categories.
The 45 single released on Reaction Records reached #34 on the British pop singles chart in 1966, the first Top 40 hit for the band.
Drummer Ginger Baker was not fond of the song: "'Wrapping Paper' is the most appalling piece of shit I've ever heard in my life! I was totally against it, right from the start... Eric and I didn't like it."
The recording is featured on The Very Best of Cream.
Lyrical meaning
The lyrics to "Wrapping Paper" talk about a man who lost his love and finds himself constantly looking at a picture of himself and his love and keeps wishing to go back "to the house on the shore." The song's lyrics share common similarities with the songs "Dreaming" and "The Coffee Song".