Creedence Clearwater Revival
Although generally bracketed with the post-psychedelic wave of San Franciscan groups, Creedence Clearwater Revival boasted one of the region's longest pedigrees. John Fogerty (b. 28 May 1945, Berkeley, California, USA; lead guitar/vocals), Tom Fogerty (b. 9 November 1941, Berkeley, California, USA, d. 6 September 1990, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA; rhythm guitar/vocals), Stu Cook (b. 25 April 1945, Oakland, California, USA; bass) and Doug Clifford (b. 24 April 1945, Palo Alto, California, USA; drums) began performing together in 1959 while attending high-school. Initially known as the Blue Velvets, then Tommy Fogerty And The Blue Velvets, the quartet became a popular attraction in the Bay Area suburb of El Cerritto and as such completed a single, Bonita, for a local independent outlet. In 1964 they auditioned for the more prestigious Fantasy label, who signed them on the understanding they change their name to the more topical Golliwogs to cash-in on the concurrent British Invasion. Between 1965-67, the rechristened group recorded seven singles ranging from the Beatles-influenced Don't Tell Me No More Lies to the compulsive Fight Fire and Walk Upon The Water, two superb garage band classics. The quartet turned fully professional in December 1967 and in doing so became known as Creedence Clearwater Revival. 
Their debut album reflected a musical crossroads. Revamped Golliwogs tracks and new John Fogerty originals slotted alongside several rock ‘n’ roll standards, including Suzie Q and I Put A Spell On You, the former reaching number 11 in the US charts. BAYOU COUNTRY, issued within a matter of months, was a more substantial affair, establishing Fogerty as a perceptive composer and CCR as America's consummate purveyors of late '60s pop. Proud Mary reached the Top 10 in both the US and UK and in the process become the quartet's first gold disc. More importantly, it introduced the mixture of Southern creole styles, R&B and rockabilly through which the best of the group's work was filtered. GREEN RIVER consolidated the group's new-found status and contained two highly successful singles, Green River and Bad Moon Rising, the latter of which topped the UK charts. The set confirmed Fogerty's increasingly fertile lyricism which ranged from personal melancholia (Lodi) to a plea for mutual understanding (Wrote A Song For Everyone). This social perspective flourished on the Fortunate Son, an acerbic attack on a privileged class sending others out to war, one of several highlights captured on WILLIE AND THE POOR BOYS. By this point the group was indisputably America's leading attraction, marrying commercial success to critical approbation. Down On The Corner, a euphoric tribute to popular music, became their fifth US Top 10 single and confirmed a transformation from gutsy bar band to international luminaries. 
CCR reached a peak with COSMO'S FACTORY. It included three gold singles, Travellin' Band, Up Around The Bend and Looking Out My Back Door, as well as an elongated reading of the Tamla/Motown classic I Heard It Through The Grapevine. The album defined the consummate Creedence sound: tight, economical and reliant on an implicit mutual understanding, and deservedly became 1970's best-selling set. However, relationships between the Fogerty brothers grew increasingly strained, reflected in the standard of the disappointing PENDULUM. Although it featured their eighth gold single in Have You Ever Seen The Rain, the set lacked the overall intensity of its immediate predecessors, a sparkle only occasionally rekindled in Pagan Baby and Molina. Tom Fogerty left for a solo career in February 1971, but although those remaining continued to work as a trio, Creedence had lost much of its impetus. Major tours of the USA, Europe, Australia and Japan did ensue, but a seventh collection, MARDI GRAS, revealed an artistic impasse. Cook and Clifford were granted democratic rights, but their uninspiring compositions only proved how much the group owed to John Fogerty's vision and Creedence Clearwater Revival was officially disbanded in July 1972. It was a dispiriting close to one of the era's most compulsive and successful groups, a combination rarely found. While the rhythm section followed low-key pursuits independently and together, their erstwhile leader began an erratic path, dogged by legal and contractual disputes, but which was marked by a deserved re-emergence in 1985.