Cream's biggest blues song was written by a Stax soul singer

I found this at Dick's record store in Santa Fe. When I picked it up he looked at me and said do you know who wrote Born Under A Bad Sign?

I didn't know it was William Bell.

When Cream, the British rock trio of Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker, released it on Wheels of Fire in 1968 it became one of the most covered blues songs ever recorded. Jimi Hendrix played it. Etta James cut a version. John Mayer, and dozens of others followed.

The song was written by William Bell and Booker T. Jones in 1967 for Albert King.

A Stax soul singer wrote the song that made Cream famous. That's the detail Dick wanted me to walk out of the store knowing.

William Bell was the first male solo artist signed to Stax in 1961. His debut single You Don't Miss Your Water is considered one of the foundational records of soul music, covered by Otis Redding, The Byrds, and Taj Mahal. When Otis died in a plane crash in 1967 Bell wrote A Tribute To A King. They had been friends.

This is Wow, his third album, released on Stax in 1971. By then Booker T. had left Memphis and the label was in transition.

William went to Muscle Shoals to record with Roger Hawkins, David Hood, Barry Beckett, and Jimmy Johnson, the legendary Swampers who played behind Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett.

I Forgot To Be Your Lover is the one Booker T. production on the record. Billy Idol covered it in 1986. Hip hop producers have been sampling it ever since.

William Bell is 87 and still performing. He won a Grammy in 2017. The voice that started Stax is still going.