1970: December 16th – Five albums and five singles
recorded by Creedence Clearwater Revival were all certified gold today.
The singles honored were “Down On The
Corner,” “Lookin’ Out My Back Door,” “Travelin’ Band,” “Bad Moon Rising” and
“Up Around The Bend” …
While the albums receiving awards were their first five
releases, including their debut, self-titled LP, “Creedence Clearwater
Revival,” “Bayou Country,” “Green River,” “Willy And The Poor Boys” and
“Cosmo’s Factory.”
In 1969 there was no hotter recording act on the planet
… and that includes The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” album, Elvis’ big comeback and
the introduction of Led Zeppelin to the airwaves.
Despite the fact that CCR never had a #1 Hit in
Billboard, they topped the Cash Box and/or Record World chart THREE TIMES in
1969-1970.
An incredible EIGHT single sides made The National Top
100 List in 1969 alone … spending (thanks to overlaps and two-sided hits) an
incredible 78 WEEKS on the chart in a 52 week year!!!
These include “I Put A Spell On You” (#55, a spill-over
from 1968), “Proud Mary” (#1), “Bad Moon Rising” (#1), “Lodi” (#46), “Green
River” (#2), “Commotion” (#30), “Down On The Corner” (#3) and “Fortunate Son”
(#4).
The streak continued into 1970 and 1971 with ten more hits
like “Travelin’ Band” (#2, 1970), “Who’ll Stop The Rain” (#13, 1970), “Up
Around The Bend” (#2, 1970), “Run Through The Jungle” (#48, 1970), “Lookin’ Out
My Back Door” (#1, 1970), “Long As I Can See The Light” (#57), “Have You Ever
Seen The Rain?” (#3, 1971), “Hey Tonight” (#3-B, 1971), “Sweet Hitch-Hiker”
(#3, 1971) and “Someday Never Comes” (their last big hit, #25, in 1972.)
Every album they released thru 1972 went multi-platinum
… these include their debut set, titled simply “Creedence Clearwater Revival”
(#52, 1968, one million copies sold), “Bayou Country” (#7, 1969, two million
copies sold), “Green River” (#1 for four weeks, 1969, three million copies
sold), “Willy And The Poorboys” (#3, 1970, two million copies sold), “Cosmo’s
Factory” (#1 for NINE weeks, 1970, four million copies sold), “Pendulum” (#5,
1971, one million copies sold), “Mardi Gras” (#12, 1972, one million copies sold)
and “Creedence Gold” (#15, 1973, two million copies sold. Their 20 Greatest Hits compilation, “Chronicle”
has sold over four million copies. Their
success on the charts was unparalleled.
Here is how we described the group in our 2003
Forgotten Hits profile:
Just how big were CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL???
For starters, check out this track record:
In just four years, they released 17 Top 40 Chart Hits,
including many two-sided hits. Virtually their ENTIRE singles catalog is still
played regularly on both Oldies Radio and the Classic Rock Stations ... which
makes it pretty tough to come up with anything even CLOSE to resembling a FORGOTTEN HIT!!!
SUZIE Q
(#9, 1968), PROUD MARY
(#2, 1969), BAD MOON
RISING (#2, 1969), GREEN
RIVER (#2, 1969), DOWN
ON THE CORNER (#3, 1969), FORTUNATE SON (#6, 1969), TRAVELIN' BAND (#2,
1970), WHO'LL STOP THE
RAIN (#2-B, 1970), UP
AROUND THE BEND (#2, 1970), LOOKIN' OUT MY BACK DOOR (#1, 1970) and
HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THE
RAIN (#3, 1971) are all radio staples.
Lesser known hits, B-Sides and LP cuts like BORN ON THE BAYOU, LODI, COMMOTION, RUN THROUGH THE JUNGLE,
SOMEDAY NEVER COMES,
SWEET HITCH-HIKER,
I PUT A SPELL ON YOU
and their version of I
HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE also continue to receive a
fair amount of airplay.
In fact, percentage-wise, they may be the
most-represented band on the radio when you consider how many songs get played
in relationship to their total career output.
But CCR
wasn't just a singles band ...
In that same four year period, they released
seven albums worth of new material! GREEN
RIVER and COSMO'S
FACTORY both went to #1 and were triple and quadruple platinum
sellers respectively. Their self-titled debut LP, BAYOU COUNTRY, WILLY AND THE POORBOYS,
PENDULUM
and MARDI GRAS
rounded out the string of hit LPs.
In 1969 and 1970, they outsold THE BEATLES ... in
fact, in just two years, CREEDENCE
CLEARWATER REVIVAL sold more records than their label, Fantasy
Records, had sold in their entire 20 year history combined!
In their four year career, they had seven gold albums
(with sales of over 25,000,000) and ten gold singles (with sales of around
12,000,000!)
You can read the entire piece here:
Last year their performance at Woodstock (heretofore
ignored for contractual reasons) was released in its entirety. It is nothing short of amazing.
And in our recent poll designed to determine THE TOP
3333 MOST ESSENTIAL CLASSIC ROCK SONGS OF ALL TIME, Creedence placed 31 songs
on the list, including NINE in The Top 500.
(The #1 Favorite? “Fortunate Son,”
which came in at #32, just ahead of “Who’ll Stop The Rain” at #39.)
You can find that complete list posted here:
