In April 1967, during their first trip to New York, Cream recorded a song called "Lawdy Mama" with Ahmet Ertegun at Atlantic Studios, at the beginning of the sessions for what would become the Disraeli Gears album. The band cut two versions of the song, the first a typical blues shuffle, and the second converted to straight time in a more rock 'n' roll style (both versions can be heard on the Those Were the Days collection). Producer Felix Pappalardi took the tape of the second version of "Lawdy Mama" and, with help from his wife Gail Collins, transformed the song into "Strange Brew" which according to Eric Clapton "created a pop song without completely destroying the original groove.One journalist noted that Clapton at this stage was employing Albert King guitar stylings; and that both "Strange Brew" and another Cream track, "Born Under a Bad Sign", "were practically Albert King parodies". Clapton performs lead vocals on the song mostly in falsetto. It was the first Cream single on which he sang lead.
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