Breaking news: creedence clearwater revival announced unexpected news

Introducing a band to the world with a cover song isn’t often done, yet in 1969 Creedence Clearwater Revival went against the grain by choosing Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ 1958 soul classic ‘l Put a Spell on You’ as the opening track on their eponymous debut. Dropping the needle onto the Fantasy Records vinyl, you heard weird whooshes and chirps that John Fogerty described in his autobiography as “my son Josh’s baby toys. We had a jack-in-the-box, some pull toys, and one of those tops that hummed once it started spinning – whoosh whoosh whoosh hummmm. We recorded them, and then played them back at different speeds.”

The sound was like a spaceship leaving a planet and its gravity behind. Then you heard the gravely, guttural vocals of Fogerty, spitting out the lyrics while laying down riffs on his three-quarter size Rickenbacker guitar, urged by the pulsing rhythm section of Stu Cook (bass) and Doug “Cosmo” Clifford (drums). That would come to be known as CCR’s swamp rock sound. Fogerty’s chilling guitar break was an appetizer to the extended solo on the marvelous, eight-and-a-half-minute reworking of Dale Hawkins’ ‘Suzie-Q,’

Creedence Clearwater Revival released five Top 10 albums from 1969 – 71. That’s more than 99% of bands have in a career, though strangely none ever reached #1 on the charts. The success could be traced to the Fogerty brothers switching roles just prior to the first album with Tom relegated to rhythm guitar and John assuming lead vocals. In Tom’s words: “I could sing, but John had a sound!” This made the band but was also a factor in the band’s unmaking. John Fogerty’s fingerprints were found on every aspect of CCR’s music, from writing the songs  to lead vocals and lead guitar, producing and even a stint as manager. He ruled in an authoritarian manner, which chafed the other three like a tight shirt collar around their necks.

Tom Fogerty was the first to quit just before CCR went through an acrimonious divorce in late 1972. He died in 1990 after an unsuccessful attempt as a solo artist. It turned out he couldn’t sing or write songs very well. In 1995, Cook and Cosmo resumed as Creedence Clearwater Revisited with three musicians hardly anyone could name today. It took both Dan McGuinness (vocals) and Steve “The Captain” Gunner (lead guitar) to replicate John Fogerty’s part. A lawsuit alleging the band’s new name would cause confusion was ruled in favor of Fogerty but overturned on appeal. The group became essentially a tribute band, by various accounts a good one, and toured for two decades before shutting down along with more than half of the world’s population when a lab leak in China let loose the coronavirus.

In their short-lived glory years, Creedence produced six platinum albums. John Fogerty took all the credit for their success. “I was the one who had created all this. Despite that, I don’t think they (other three in the band) understood. They were obsessed with the idea of more control and more influence. So finally, the bomb exploded and we never worked together again.”

He tried re-branding as the Blue Ridge Rangers, though pictures on the album jacket of the seven members in the group all bore a resemblance to him. After that effort went belly up, he went solo and in 1985 had a huge hit with ‘Centerfield’ as memories of the other three in CCR faded away and became trivia answers. John delivered the eulogy at Tom’s funeral, saying, “We wanted to grow up and be musicians. I guess we achieved half of that by becoming rock ‘n roll stars. We didn’t necessarily grow up.”

Number 10: ‘Run Through the Jungle’ by The Georgia Satellites (self-titled 1986)

Inspiration was still on CCR’s side on “Cosmo’s Factory,” the band’s third chart-topping album in a single year. “Cosmo” was drummer Doug Clifford’s nickname and the “Factory” was what he called an empty warehouse in Berkeley, California where the band practiced. The rhythm section of Clifford and Stu Cook were on top of their game on this cut, which featured John Fogerty blowing a distorted lead on harmonica. Both the Jeff Healey Band and Gun Club recorded solid covers, but the choice here is an outright rocker by The Georgia Satellites. Fogerty’s duties were split between Dan Baird (vocals) and Rick Richards (lead guitar) on the sloppy, no frills southern rock band’s debut album.