In 1968, rock supergroup Cream climbed up the charts with “Sunshine of Your Love.” The psychedelic, bluesy song, written by Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Peter Brown for the album Disraeli Gears, was known for its opening distorted guitar riff and lyrics about reuniting with a lover.
“Sunshine of Your Love” peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in August 1968 and remains one of Cream’s most popular songs nearly 60 years later.
In 2026, BBC Music’s Classical Music ranked “Sunshine of Your Love” as one of the greatest guitar riffs of all time, noting that Jimi Hendrix was such a fan of the song that he got banned by the BBC for playing it during a live broadcast.
“Hendrix was due to play ‘Hey Joe’ on the BBC’s Happening For Lulu TV show,” the outlet shared. “But just as he began, he switched to play ‘Sunshine Of Your Love’, saying ‘We’d like to stop playing this rubbish and dedicate a song to The Cream,' before blasting into it in tribute to one of his favorite bands. It was so forceful and explosive that the producers pulled the plug on the broadcast, and Hendrix was banned from playing on the BBC again.”
The BBC website reported that The Jimi Hendrix Experience was pulled off the air during Scottish singer Lulu's show after performing the song "Voodoo Chile" and the first part of "Hey Joe," which segued into the Cream classic.
“The trio then broke into Cream's 'Sunshine of Your Love,' in tribute to the recently disbanded group, until producers brought the song to a premature end," the BBC reported. "The stunt (according to rock and roll legend) earned The Jimi Hendrix Experience a ban from performing on BBC television.”
The ironic thing was, it was Hendrix who inspired the Cream song to begin with.
In a 1988 interview with Rolling Stone, Clapton revealed that Bruce was inspired to compose the opening riff to "Sunshine of Your Love" after attending a Jimi Hendrix concert in England.
"We’d been to see Hendrix about two nights before at the Saville Theatre, in London," Clapton recalled. “It was the complete embodiment of the different aspects of rock & roll guitar rolled up into one. … That night after the gig [Bruce] went home and came up with the riff. It was strictly a dedication to Jimi. And then we wrote a song on top of it."
In a 1968 interview with Rolling Stone, Clapton described Hendrix as a “great guitarist” and major musical talent.
“He had the whole combination in England. It was just what the market wanted, a psychedelic pop star who looked freaky… and the blues thing was there,” he said. "So Jimi walked in, put on all the gear, and made it straight away. It was a perfect formula. Underneath it all, he’s got an incredible musical talent. He is really one of the finest musicians around on the Western scene.”
Decades later, Hendrix's iconic 1969 “Sunshine of Your Love” performance can be viewed on Clapton’s official Facebook page.
Hendrix’s ban from BBC television came just one year before his death at age 27.
Related: 1972 Road-Trip Anthem, Written by Rock Legends, Was Inspired by an Iconic TV Theme
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