Formed: 1969

The lineup: Eric Clapton (Cream, The Yardbirds, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers), Steve Winwood (Traffic, The Spencer Davis Group), Ginger Baker (Cream), Rick Grech (Family)

The story: Generally thought to be one of rock's first supergroups, Blind Faith combined hard rock and heavy blues (as was common for British rock around the time of the explosion of Led Zeppelin and The Jeff Beck Group) to polarizing effect. They even had the obligatory notorious album cover (a naked, pubescent girl holding a phallic object).

Combining Cream's guitarist (Clapton) and drummer (Baker) with the jazzier, looser contributions from Winwood on keys alongside Grech on bass and violin, they only lasted long enough to release one (celebrated, if a bit short) self-titled album before Clapton got the itch to tour with their support act (Delaney and Bonnie) instead, which would then lead to his first solo album produced by Delaney. He'd then quickly nick Delaney and Bonnie's backing band to form Derek and the Dominoes. Clapton's group projects always maintained a tendency to become short flashes of brilliance with an impeccable cast of players.

Album to buy: Blind Faith