Creedence Clearwater Revival released their first album in 1968. They seemingly emerged from a Florida swamp but actually came from El Cerrito in California. Rebelling against the psychedelic rock of the late 1960s, Creedence began their career playing stripped-down and bluesy swamp rock.
As CCR’s career progressed, frontman John Fogerty’s writing grew more confident and the band became a classic rock hits machine. But after six albums between 1968 and 1970 Fogerty’s writing muse ran dry. The other band members fought for a share of artistic input with famously terrible results. But the band’s brief career produced a riverboat’s worth of great songs and some terrific albums.
Here are Creedence Clearwater Revival’s seven studio albums, ranked from worst to best:
#7 Mardi Gras
1972
Rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty left the band in protest of his brother’s dominance. A frustrated John allowed the other two remaining members space to write and sing their compositions.
Even John’s material like the heavy ‘Sweet Hitch-hiker’ and pretty ‘Someday Never Comes’ doesn’t rank among the group’s best. Stu Cook and Doug Clifford are a strong rhythm section, but their songs are generic, and Clifford is a poor vocalist.
#6 Pendulum
1970
Pendulum is more of a studio-based album than Creedence’s previous albums – I like the more detailed arrangements, like the soulful organ on some tracks.
But on their sixth album since 1968, it feels as though John Fogerty’s running out of songs, and despite a few strong songs like ‘Have You Ever Seen The Rain?’, Pendulum was the band’s weakest effort to date.
#5 Creedence Clearwater Revival
1968
Creedence Clearwater Revival’s debut showcases their swampy and bluesy boogie. Many of the songs are covers, including the minor hit ‘Suzie Q’, and it’s reliant on basic blues progressions. But even though John Fogerty would develop quickly as a songwriter, their core sound is already fun and infectious.
#4 Bayou Country
1969
Creedence Clearwater Revival’s second album builds on the swamp rock of their first. It features strong John Fogerty originals like ‘Proud Mary’ and ‘Born on the Bayou’ that stand out among their swampy boogie.
Impressively Bayou Country was the first of three albums CCR released in 1969.
#3 Green River
1969
Creedence Clearwater Revival’s rapid development continued on their second album of 1969. The group famously never topped the singles chart. But Green River contains two #2 hits – ‘Bad Moon Rising’ and ‘Green River’.
There’s also more diversity on display – there’s a hint of country on songs like ‘Lodi’, while ‘Wrote A Song For Everyone’ is acoustic and gorgeous.
#2 Willy and the Poor Boys
1969
Creedence Clearwater Revival entered their peak era on Willy and the Poor Boys. It’s jammed full of hits like ‘Down On The Corner’ and the protest song ‘Fortunate Son’. There are great album tracks like ‘It Came Out of the Sky’ and ‘Effigy’ and ace covers of ‘Cotton Fields’ and ‘Midnight Special’. You’ll barely notice a couple of insubstantial instrumentals.
#1 Cosmo’s Factory
1970
Cosmo’s Factory has so many great songs it plays like a Greatest Hits collection. Highlights include ‘Who’ll Stop The Rain’, ‘Up Around The Bend’, ‘Ooby Dooby’, and ‘As Long As I Can See The Light’. Among the deep cuts, there’s the opening swamp groove of ‘Ramble Tamble’ and the lengthy cover of Marvin Gaye’s ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’.
Even if Creedence Clearwater Revival are sometimes seen as a singles band, they had great full-length albums too. Cosmo’s Factory is a case in point.
Do you have a favourite Creedence Clearwater Revival album? Is there anyone out there who doesn’t like them?
Read More:
29 Comments
Leave a Reply
Review Pages
Read about the discographies of musical acts from the 1960s to the present day. Browse this site's review archives or enjoy these random selections:
Blog Posts
I add new blog posts to this website every week. Browse the archives or enjoy these random selections:
I can’t think of anyone that doesn’t like or wouldn’t recognize one of their songs. One of the best bands ever in my book.
It feels like they’re probably one of the more universally loved bands out there. I’m sure someone out there doesn’t like them though.
I’m not one of them. Universally loved I feel. My personal favourite is “Green River” followed by “Bayou Country”, then “Cosmo’s Factory” third.
Looks like there’s two camps, right? People that like the swamp rock, and people that like the poppy stuff.
Mardi Gras is terrible despite John’s great material that is in it! I sort of think it is an interesting record, though. It’s like John saying to the other two members of the band “You guys want creative input? So let’s see you come up with some songs.” It’s bitter and hilarious, because I am pretty confident he knew the result would be lackluster but he let them do it in order to prove a point.
Besides that one, the band’s other records all range from good to excellent. My top 3 would be the same as yours, even the order would be equal.
It looks like there’s quite a lot of unresolved frustration from both camps there – Fogerty’s pretty adamant that he was the band’s driving force, and the rhythm section stating that lots of the songs originated from group jams. Does mostly seem like a case of not biting the hand that feeds you – you’re in one of the most successful bands in the world with a guy who’s on a hot writing streak, why would you complain about it?
Yeah, I have read there is a lot of frustration and bitterness between them.
Writing credits seem to be a big problem in bands. I guess assigning credit for songs is rather subjective, so some guys feel they deserve the credit and when the main songwriter does not give it to them, tension arises.
That’s why I admire groups like U2 and R.E.M., where everybody gets the credit regardless of who wrote the song. It avoids quite a big mess. But I guess that arrangement does not work in a setting where you have one guy that is ridiculously prolific, such as John.
Bayou, Green, Cosmo, Willy. Rest the same.
You dig the swamp rock?
Like an alligator on heat.
I think the most impressive aspect of this is that – Mardi Gras aside – we’re looking at six albums recorded and released in a two year period. Ridiculous. No wonder they ran aground with that much writing, recording and touring pressure on them.
Can’t listen to em anymore without picturing The Dude lighting one up and listening in his car. Not that that’s a bad thing
Yeah, it’s crazy fast. Band in-fighting seems like it was another pressure as well.
I don’t like Creedence, I love it. That sounds like a good lyric for a song. VC’s comment deserves a blue ribbon.
They had a pretty good little run – they managed to make infectious singles and satisfying albums.
When CB was prowling the bars all the bands did CCR covers. Never failed to get people Rockin.
For me, they’re a compilation band. That green/gold-covered 2CD set is my go-to. I need to get the albums proper so I can decide…
I agree with the people here who said John Fogerty was the driving force of the band, but he wasn’t the only force. You only have to listen to his horrendous solo work to notice this. He was only the driving force as far as the songs were concerned, but not the music. Without the rest of the band he was unbelievably mediocre. And his song writing wasn’t even any good anymore after they broke up.
Feels like later bands learned from band tensions over royalties, and tended to split the songwriting credits equally. I think Fogerty did claim that he taught the rest of the band how to play.
Fogerty’s first three solo albums are brilliant: The Blue Ridge Rangers, John Fogerty, and Centerfield. Then he tailed off somewhat but the songwriting run he had from ‘66 to’85 was unbelievable.
Thanks for writing in. I should check in with his solo stuff sometime.
So Robert Brocculeri, how are you related to Saul Zantz? You could not be more wrong, and I’m pretty sure you are never going to “change” your mind because you’re “opinion” was not honest to begin with (nobody, but nobody is that far wrong if they’re being honest. You don’t have to love Fogerty’s music, but you’re statement is equivalent to saying Willie Mays was OK). Simply put, John Fogerty is one of the greatest musicians ever – perhaps the American version of John or Paul. Just watch his special concert at Red Rocks in 2019. At his age, he STILL shreds! He sounds like John Lennon on one song, Sly Stone on another, and of course has one of the most iconic, rich, and impressive voices in rock’n’roll history. Furthermore watch him absolutely shred the guitar.
I entirely agree on Cosmo’s being no. 1, though Green River feels more like a unified album than Willy. It’s amazing how their top four albums still hold up so well today, though it’s hard to argue that there are no John Fogertys left in modern pop music.
I agree with this list completely…although the top 3 I could throw up in the air and pick one. Glad you reposted this…this was a month after when I started to blog.
I had a serious Mandela Effect… I would have bet you one of my guitars that Long As I Can See The Light was on Pendulum because of the sax and the keyboards…it sounds like it belongs on that album. I like Pagan Baby as well…I just wrote it up. I also have a guilty pleasure on Mardi Gras…I like one non Fogerty song… “What Are You Gonna Do” by Clifford…although it wasn’t really a CCR song.
Also you mentioned Wrote A Song For Everyone is one of my favorite CCR songs along with Bootleg.
I actually accidentally reposted it, I was just doing a bit of editing on it. It probably is a good idea to have a bit of a tidy up and repost big articles like this though, since it’s seven years old. Maybe I should do it regularly.
You’re right about Long as I Can See The Light fitting Pendulum. Mardi Gras is a bit like VU’s last record, where they kept going without Lou.
It is a good idea to do that. I thought it could have been a mistake but with me…I have a different set of readers than I did back then with a few the same. It’s a cool idea to repost them at times. I would have never seen this.
I should probably go through and refresh my popular posts that are getting old. I can add polls to them as well.
I generally love CCR. Since “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” is my all-time favorite song by them and I also dig “Hey Tonight”, I probably would have ranked “Pendulum” closer to the top. That said said, if I only could pick one, “Cosmo’s Factory” would be a strong candidate, so probably would rank it no. 1 as well!
Everyone loves CCR right?
Pendulum is kind of their most sophisticated album, and often I prefer the most sophisticated album. But it’s a bit inconsistent for my money.
For me Is:
1 Pendulum
2 Cosmos
3 Willy
4 Green
5 Mardi
6 Creedence
7 Bayou