Good Golly Miss Molly

Background

"Good Golly Miss Molly" rips open the original B-side of Bayou Country, the second album of Creedence Clearwater Revival. This 12-bar rock and roll standard is the one and only cover song on the long-player which came out in January 1969, but what a cover.

The piece was written by John Marascalco and Robert "Bumps" Blackwell and recorded originally by Little Richard in 1958. 

Trivia

John Fogerty changed the original lyrics slightly. Instead of the result of the gift of a diamond ring being "When she hugs me, her kissin' makes me ting-a-ling-a-ling," he sang, "Would you pardon me a kissin' and a ting-a-ling-a-ling?" He also changes the feel into a straight-ahead, electric guitar-fuelled rocker, that may lack the swing of the original but not one iota of excitement and energy.

Collector's notes

A 7" single "Bootleg", coupled with "Good Golly Miss Molly" (America 17010), was released in France in April 1969. It had a photo sleeve (Peter Koers, Green River, 1999).

Live versions

John Fogerty, Tom Fogerty, Stu Cook and Doug Clifford played the Little Richard original since the early Blue Velvets and Golliwogs days. Creedence Clearwater performed the song at Deno & Carlo's (later Keystone Korner) in San Francisco each week as per February 2nd until April 28th 1968 - several months before capturing it onto the master tape. 

There are no documented concerts in 1969 with the song in the set list except the band's premiere TV appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show on March 9th, 1969. The performance was half-playback: music from tape, with live vocals.  

“Good Golly Miss Molly” made a short return to the band's programming on the Euro Tour in spring 1970.  The concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London, UK, in April 1970 was filmed by TVR for the BBC but the footage has never been screened officially.

John, Stu and Doug played “Good Golly Miss Molly” probably for the last time together in the private concert at the 20th Reunion of the Class of '63, at El Cerrito High in El Cerrito, California, in November 1983. 

John Fogerty revisited the “ting-a-ling-a-ling” for the first time as a solo artist at Beacon Theatre in New York on December 1st, 2006. From this point on, the crowd heard “Good Golly Miss Molly” live on quite a regular basis. In a couple of concerts in the USA in November 2007, he lifted the number to the beginning of the show.  Fogerty also did the piece at Glastonbury Festival in the UK on June 23rd, 2007, in a concert televised live in England by BBC4.  

Fogerty also performed the song in the Bayou Country album concerts in Canada and the USA in 2012 and 2013. Audios of most of the shows in autumn 2013 were officially made available as downloadable files for a couple of months after the tour. 

Extraordinary live versions of the song include the 50th Grammy Awards Gala where John Fogerty performed with Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis. The show was televised in the USA. Another duet performance of the song with Jerry Lee Lewis is available on Jerry Lee Lewis' DVD Last Man Standing Live. It was recorded on September 28-29, 2006 and released on March 6, 2007.

In the movies

Creedence Clearwater's version of "Good Golly Miss Molly" was used in two films in the 1970's:

• Fun Buns Contest (1975)

• Go Fly A Kite (1973)

Critical reception

""Good Golly Miss Molly" is not nearly as exciting as Little Richard's original, though the group gets a good workout on this one." -Ray Rezos, The Rolling Stone, March 1st, 1969.

"The cover of Little Richard's 'Good Golly Miss Molly' is as furious as might be, with John not trying to imitate Mr Pennyman but rather accomodating the song to his own vocal and guitar style: it's naturally far more hard-rocking, and it also initiates a series of fast CCR numbers - the band was too shy to play it real fast on the debut album, but this number gave them further confidence, and it's the natural predecessor to 'Travelin' Band'". -George Starostin.

"On the mandatory classic rock’n’roll cover “Good Golly Miss Molly” John does what Paul McCartney did on the Fabs’ version of “Long Tall Sally”: his eviscerating vocal simply leaves the original for dead." -Len, The Rising Storm, March 1st, 2010. 

Fans' views

"Listen to that voice, man! This is rock'n'roll!"

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