If you could pick one band that captures the All-American spirit of popular music, Creedence Clearwater Revival definitely fits the bill.  Very few bands then and almost none today, could take all elements of American popular music and fuse them together, to be appreciated by blues, country and rock fans alike.  It takes a special chemistry of musicians to pull something like that off.  That special chemistry consisted of Doug Clifford, Stu Cook, John and Tom Fogerty. 

John, Stu and Doug all played together since High School.  Tom joined a few years later, fronting the band by doing lead vocals.  During those early days of performing, they were known as Tommy Fogerty and the Blue Velvets.   When they signed with Fantasy Records in 1964, management decided to change their name to The Golliwogs.  Their early singles had Tom Fogerty doing the lead vocals, but John Fogerty started to lead vocals on later single releases.  The Golliwogs scored a couple of local hits with “Brown Eyed Girl” (not the Van Morrison hit, although it does sound like "Gloria") and “Have You Ever Been Lonely”, the latter being the “Pick Of The Week” on KEWB in San Francisco.

Creedence Clearwater Revival was born on December 1967, releasing their debut single, “Porterville/Call It Pretending”. 

Their first album was titled, Creedence Clearwater Revival and released July 1968, along with two singles, "Suzie Q pt.1/Suzie Q pt.2" and "I Put A Spell On You/Walk On Water".  Both singles had considerable chart successes and the album went gold.

Their second album was titled, Bayou Country and released in January 1969.  Bayou Country was Creedence's definitive album.  Ever since this album was released, CCR opened and closed their live performances with the opening and closing tracks on this album.  CCR had their first big hit when the single "Proud Mary/Born on The Bayou" went Gold pushing "Bayou Country" over a million units sold.  With this album, like it's predecessor, people started to realize CCR's versions of other artist's songs sounded as if they wrote it themselves.  Just listen to "Suzie Q", "I Put A Spell On You" and "Good Golly Miss Molly".

Their next Gold single "Bad Moon Rising/Lodi" released April 1969, reached #1 in Britain and #2 in America.  Another single, "Green River/Commotion" also went Gold.  The album, Green River, released in August 1969, sold over a million copies.  It eventually went to #1 on the album charts.  This album was CCR's most commercial to date.  It incorporated more elements of country with songs like, "Green River", "Wrote A Song For Everyone", "Lodi", "Bad Moon Rising" and "Cross-Tie Walker".  They played The Woodstock Festival, but didn't get on until well after 3 or 4 a.m.  John Fogerty was quoted in saying, "We got half-way through our set, then the flood lights shone on the crowd.  Everyone was sleeping!  Then I heard a voice in the crowd, 'Don't worry John, we can still hear ya!', so we played the rest of our set for that one person".

Willy And The Poorboys, released November 1969, defined America in the late 60's.  The themes on this album acknowledged the privileged in songs like "Fortunate Son" and "Don't Look Now"; the suppressed in songs like "The Midnight Special", "Effigy" and "Feelin' Blue"; "It Came Out Of The Sky" talked about social insecurity and greed.  This album also had some good ol' sing-a-longs like "Down On The Corner" and "Cotton Fields".  This was their most political album; yet, it still sold well over a million copies.  The single, "Down On The Corner/Fortunate Son" was released at the same time.

In 1970, CCR struck gold three times, with three single releases.  First, in January with "Travelin' Band/Who'll Stop The Rain"; then, in April with "Up And Around The Bend/Run Through The Jungle"; and finally, in July with "Lookin' Out My Backdoor/Long As I Can See The Light".  By this time, CCR was known as one of America's top bands, rivaled only by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and The Doors. 

Their next album, Cosmo's Factory was their biggest selling album.  Like Green River, it also reached #1 on the Album charts.  It had everything each album had and more.  It had rock n' roll tunes like "Up And Around the Bend" and "Travelin' Band"; rock-a-billy covers like "Ooby Dooby" and "Since My Baby Left Me";  R n' B covers, "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" and "Before You Accuse Me"; country and folk tunes, "Lookin' Out My Backdoor" and "Who'll Stop The Rain" and even political songs "Ramble Tamble" and "Run Through The Jungle".  On this recording project, John Fogerty started to experimenting with other instruments such as, the dobro on "Lookin' Out My Backdoor" and saxophone and electric piano on "Long As I Can See The Light".

Pendulum was released, December 1970.  On this album, John Fogerty plays lead guitar on very few tracks, "Pagan Baby" being the most notable.   As for the rest of the album, he devotes his musicianship to saxophone and keyboard chores, giving it an all-around soul sound.  In January 1971, CCR released their next single "Have You Ever Seen The Rain/Hey Tonight".  The following month Tom Fogerty left the band to pursue a solo career.   The next single, released July 1971, was "Sweet Hitch Hiker/Door To Door".  The single easily went to Gold.  The B-side of that single was written and sung by Stu Cook.  CCR didn't release any album that year, but they did go on a world tour. 

Doug Clifford and Stu Cook wanted more artistic input by writing songs for the next album.  John Fogerty finally allowed them a chance to prove themselves.  The result was the single "Someday Never Comes/Tearing Up The Country", released March 1972; and, the album, Mardi Gras, released April 1972.  Although the album sold enough copies to go Gold, it was an artistic failure.  Stu and Doug couldn't write or sing the songs as well as  John, Tom Fogerty's rhythm guitar sound was missing and even John Fogerty didn't contribute as much as he did on previous albums. The only songs that had the high CCR standard were "Sweet Hitchhiker", released the year before and "Somneday Never Comes".  

Creedence Clearwater Revival finally disbanded in October 1972.  Although there have been several attempts to reunite the band, none were successful. 

In 1990, Tom Fogerty died of respiratory failure brought on by an AIDS infected blood transfusion. 

Since the mid-1990s, Doug Clifford and Stu Cook have been playing in a CCR tribute band called, Creedence Clearwater Revisited.

John Fogerty has had a successful solo career releasing solo albums and performing songs from them, along side CCR songs, to people all over the world.

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