 Cream recorded the song on November 28 , 1966 , for broadcast on the BBC Guitar Club radio program . At less than two minutes in length , Clapton only sings the first and last sections , with his guitar solo replacing the middle " Traveling Riverside Blues " verse . It appeared on bootleg albums before finally being released in 2003 on BBC Sessions . On March 10 , 1968 , Cream recorded it again during a concert at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco . According to two music writers , the recording was edited from a much longer performance that was typical for the trio – in the notes for Clapton 's Crossroads box set , Anthony DeCurtis credits the trimming to engineer Tom Dowd , while critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine attributes the editing to producer Felix Pappalardi , who " cut together the best bits of a winding improvisation to a tight four minutes " , to allow the song 's drive more continuity.However , Clapton biographer Schumacher does not mentioning editing and adds " Given the passion of the solo performances on ' Crossroads , ' it seems almost miraculous that Cream is able to return to the song itself . " " Crossroads " became the opening number on the live half of Cream 's Wheels of Fire double album , released in August 1968 by Polydor Records in the UK and Atco Records in the US . After the group 's breakup , Atco issued the song as a single in January 1969 , which reached number 28 on the US Billboard Hot 100 pop chart and 17 on Cashbox . Both the original album and single credit the songwriter as Robert Johnson or R. Johnson , although Clapton and Cream extensively reworked the song . 
