Creedence Clearwater Revival, commonly abbreviated as CCR, was an American rock band formed in El Cerrito, California. The band initially consisted of lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and primary songwriter John Fogerty, his brother, rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty, bassist Stu Cook, and drummer Doug Clifford. These members had played together since 1959, first as the Blue Velvets and later as the Golliwogs, before settling on Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1967.
The band’s most prolific and successful period between 1969 and 1971 produced fourteen consecutive top 10 singles (many of which were double A-sides) and five consecutive top 10 albums in the United States – two of which, Green River (1969) and Cosmo’s Factory (1970), reached number one. The band performed at the 1969 Woodstock festival in Upstate New York, and was the first major act signed to appear there.
CCR disbanded acrimoniously in late 1972 after four years of chart-topping success. Tom Fogerty had left the previous year, and John was at odds with the remaining members over matters of business and artistic control, all of which resulted in lawsuits among the former bandmates. Fogerty’s disagreements with Fantasy Records owner Saul Zaentz led to more court cases and John Fogerty refused to perform with the two other surviving members at Creedence’s 1993 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Though the band has never reunited, John Fogerty continues to perform CCR songs as part of his solo act, while Cook and Clifford have performed as Creedence Clearwater Revisited since the 1990s.
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By this point, Fogerty was not only at direct odds with his bandmates but he had also come to see the group’s relationship with Fantasy Records as onerous, feeling that Zaentz had reneged on his promise to give the band a better contract. Cook — who held a degree in business — claimed that because of poor judgment on Fogerty’s part, CCR had to abide by the worst record deal of any major U.S. recording artist. . . Cook and Clifford eventually started the band Creedence Clearwater Revisited.
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Under his [John’s] old CCR contract, however, Fogerty owed Fantasy eight more records. In the end, he refused to work for the label. The impasse was resolved only when Asylum Records’ David Geffen bought Fogerty’s contract for $1 million. In 1975 he released his only Asylum album, the self-titled John Fogerty. His next major hit was Centerfield, a chart-topping success in 1985. On tour in 1986, however, Fogerty suffered complaints over his steadfast refusal to perform CCR songs and suffered with recurring vocal problems which he blamed on having to testify in court. Fogerty’s explanation for not playing CCR material was that he would have had to pay performance royalties to copyright holder Zaentz, and that it was “too painful” to revisit the music of his past.
With the Centerfield album, Fogerty also found himself entangled in new, tit-for-tat lawsuits with Zaentz over the song “The Old Man Down The Road” which was, according to Zaentz, a blatant re-write of Fogerty’s own 1970 CCR hit “Run Through the Jungle”. Since Fogerty had traded his rights to CCR’s songs in 1980 to cancel his remaining contractual obligations, Fantasy now owned the rights to “Run Through the Jungle” and sued Fogerty essentially for plagiarizing himself. While a jury ruled in Fogerty’s favor, he did settle a defamation suit filed by Zaentz over the songs “Mr. Greed” and “Zanz Kant Danz”. Fogerty was forced to edit the recording, changing the “Zanz” reference to “Vanz”.
On February 19, 1987, at the Palomino Club (North Hollywood) in Los Angeles, Fogerty broke his self-imposed ban on performing CCR hits. Bob Dylan and George Harrison (along with Taj Mahal and Jesse Ed Davis) had joined him onstage, admonishing, “If you don’t, the whole world’s gonna think ‘Proud Mary’ is Tina Turner’s song.” At a 1987 Independence Day benefit concert for Vietnam veterans, Fogerty finally ran through the list of CCR hits, beginning with “Born on the Bayou” and ending with “Proud Mary”. In 1986 he also released his second Warner Bros. album, Eye of the Zombie. Fogerty retreated from music again in the late 1980s but returned in 1997 with the Grammy-winning Blue Moon Swamp. Fogerty still tours frequently and now performs CCR classics alongside his solo material.
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As a goodwill gesture, Concord honored the unfulfilled contractual promises Fantasy made nearly forty years earlier, finally paying CCR a higher royalty rate on their sales and restoring John’s ownership of his songs.
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Read more of the bio of Creedence Clearwater Revival here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creedence_clearwater_revival
[COMBO Editor’s note: The basic disagreement came when John sold the rights to their songs to Saul Zaentz, not understanding the long-term consequences of such a paltry deal, meaning the band members did not get royalties from those songs from radio-airplay, nor income from movies, tv projects, or any use in commercials. The Buyer Beware part? Make sure any contracts you sign are GOOD for YOU!]
Photo: Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1968. From left to right: Tom Fogerty, Doug Clifford, Stu Cook and John Fogerty (from the Wikipedia article)
Excerpt from Wikipedia Bio: Creedence Clearwater Revival
