Those are turnarounds, too. The word is flexible.
I believe that after the Beatles broke up, CCR was the most successful band of the period in terms of total sales, even though none of their singles reached number one – because they had such a frenetic release schedule. But they weren’t taken as seriously as other bands. For one thing, they didn’t have the diversity of sound if the Beatles. Every track was swamp rock. But man, even if they do all sound the same, they put out some great tunes.
–Cliffy
I had a similar revelation about a quarter-century ago. I found “Chronicle” in the bargain bin of the record store near my college campus. I saw Proud Mary and Bad Moon Rising, about the only two tracks I was familiar with, and figured the album might be worth dropping 5 bucks on.
Went back to my dorm and listened to all 4 sides in one sitting, then listened again. Been a huge Creedence/Fogerty fan ever since.
I’m happy to see people are still discovering these great songs!
ETA: Most of my favorites have already been mentioned, but I’ll drop in a mention for It Came Out of the Sky, a fun and sly commentary about media and celebrity that rings even more true today.
That’s interesting. At the beginning of 1968, second semester of my junior year in high school, there was no popular rock-oriented FM radio in Atlanta. If you wanted rock, you had to listen to one of two top-40 AM stations. FM was essentially the domain of easy listening music.
In the summer of '68, “underground” radio appeared on the scene. It wasn’t non-commercial, but the ads were for head shops, concert promoters, and the like. Atlanta’s first underground station - WPLO FM - went on the air the summer before my senior year in high school. It was on WPLO that I heard groups I’d NEVER heard on WQXI (our top 40 station). Groups like Quicksilver Messenger Service, Country Joe and the Fish, Pacific Gas and Electric, the Steve Miller Band, Spirit, and Creedence Clearwater Revival. WPLO (and other underground stations) were notable for playing cuts off of albums rather than singles. It was WPLO that introduced me to Creedence.
The first Creedence song I ever heard on the radio was a blistering cover of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins “I Put a Spell on You.” Then I heard them do a cover of Dale Hawkins’ (no relation to Screamin’ Jay) “Susie Q.” Both of these were cuts from their first album - “Creedence Clearwater revival.” Neither of these would ever see playtime on AM.
By then I was hooked on underground radio. In 1969, my senior year in high school, WPLO FM was all I listened to. There weren’t any progressive college stations in Atlanta yet. They didn’t come until the next year. So it was WPLO that introduced me to Led Zeppelin, Jeff Beck, Fleetwood Mac, the Mothers of Invention, Crosby Stills and Nash, and Santana, as well as the Creedence numbers “Proud Mary,” and “Born on the Bayou.” 1969 also brought us “Commotion,” “Green River” and “Lodi.”
In 1970, Atlanta got two “progressive” college stations - WRAS from Georgia State University, and WREK out of Georgia Tech. So now we had three stations aimed at the “hippie” market. Creedence’s “Willy and the Poor Boys” had been released, and all three stations were playing numbers off of it.
I had sworn off AM top 40 radio by then. WQXI was where you heard those songs Exapno Mapcase references that edged out Creedence for #1. Maybe by July 1970 when we got “Long As I Can See The Light,” “Lookin’ Out My Back Door,” “Run Through The Jungle,” “Travelin’ Band,” “Up Around The Bend,” and “Who’ll Stop The Rain” (all from the album “Cosmo’s Factory” - what a hit machine!) they were “considered top 40 only and got no airplay” on college stations. But not in my neck of the woods! Creedence were indelibly associated with those hip, counterculture bands you NEVER heard on top 40.
I guess they had it both ways. As I say, in 1970 I wasn’t listening to top 40 - I had three FM stations that fulfulled my musical needs. But as I check the charts, I see those songs from “Cosmo’s Factory” all charted at either #2 or #4. So I guess in the summer of '70 you were hearing Creedence incessantly on top 40 as well.
By '71, Creedence was pretty much toast. The group had split and the results on “Mardi Gras,” for example, weren’t pretty at all. But for three incredible years - 1968 to 1971 - I can’t think of ANY band other than the Beatles who churned out such a rapid succession of GREAT singles. Creedence never really was an album band, “Willie and the Poorboys” notwithstanding. But for consistently great songwriting and execution, it’s very hard to top them!
By the way, can you tell I’m a fan? 
It’s always bothered me that “Born On The Bayou” wasn’t included on “Chronicle”. Seems to me it was at least as big a hit as songs like “Sweet Hitchhiker” or “Someday Never Comes” which I don’t think I’ve ever heard on the radio. For me it’s a glaring omission on an otherwise near-perfect collection of songs.
What album was the song, “Put me in, Coach” on? I thought they were going downhill at that time.
That was from John Fogerty’s 1985 solo album “Centerfield.” It was released more than a dozen years after the demise of Creedence, and was the first music anyone had heard from Fogerty in nearly ten years. It had a couple of good songs on it, but it paled in comparison to his earlier work.
I probably just heard it on the radio.
Damn, I’m old.
Same thing.
“I wannnnna know…”
I was there for one of the few (two?) times Fogerty played any CCR material between their breakup and 1997, at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concert in Cleveland in 1995. I was just explaining to my pal that he didn’t do any Creedence material anymore when he busted into the riff from “Born on the Bayou”.
The weird thing is that he says in this interview that he only did it once, for a veteran’s concert in 1987, and the next time was in 1997. But I was there, and in fact “Bayou” and “Fortunate Son” are on the official album released from that show, so I’m not wrong.
Roger Daltrey covered “Born on the Bayou” on his recent tour. He said that it was the only song he could remember from Woodstock.
Who could forget the Fish cheer?
Maybe, but that still didn’t stop the idiots at Fantasy Records from suing him, trying to claim that “The Old Man Down the Road” sounded too much like “Run Through the Jungle”. Imagine, two songs written by the same person sounding similar in some way. How dare Fogerty rip himself off like that! (Yes, I know that Fantasy legally owned the rights to “Jungle”, but it’s still monumentally stupid to sue someone for writing two songs that have some vague similarity in sound).
I grew up the Bay Area, and Creedence was really, really popular. I remember my older sister’s boyfriend coming over once with the “Willy and the Poor Boys” album, playing it, and talking about how, on the song “Poorboy Shuffle”, they were really playing the instruments they were shown with on the album cover.
John is a great talent, but I don’t think he has ever reached the same level of song writing that he did when he was with Creedence.
Fortunately, John won that suit, the court essentially ruling you can’t be liable for sounding like yourself!
I’m pretty much right there with you. Fogerty was actually opening for Mellencamp (who SUUUUUUUCKED live), so I was actually going for Johnny Cougar.
Fogerty blew me away. One of the best concerts I’ve seen as well.
It was so good that the Houston Rodeo invited him back the next two years, and his shows were among the best reviewed rodeo performances I’ve ever seen.
I don’t think it was all that absurd. All Fogerty’s songs sound the same. But Jungle and Old Man Down the Road are the same song. Even today, after 15 years of being a pretty serious CCR fan, I still find myself segueing into the wrong one when I’m humming along.
–Cliffy
… and played lead guitar. He was that band. But I can completely understand how that must have annoyed the others, they must have felt more like his backing band.
And isn’t it interesting how he was almost entirely unable to produce the the goods solo - yes, Centrefield has glimpses of it, but isn’t as good as the worst CCR album.
Hey Cubsfan, just a quick thank you for starting this and making me realize I hadn’t put any of my Creedence on my iPhone when I bought it last month. I have been listening to Cosmo’s Factory and Willy and the Poor Boys all evening and loving it. 
I just wanted to tell Labdad and Roadfood that I really enjoyed your posts! I grew up in the wrong era (I’m 33) – I love classic rock and have always enjoyed CCR. It must have been so cool to grow up in a time with such great rock.