Haunted House

Background

"Haunted House" is the eleventh track of The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again, the ninth solo album of John Fogerty with new material. The collection is a follow-up to Fogerty's first solo album The Blue Ridge Rangers which consisted of covers of old country and gospel tunes and came out in 1973.

Recording of The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again started in October 2008 at Village Recorders in Santa Monica with engineer Mike Piersante. The album was arranged and produced by John Fogerty. It was released in August 2009. The album peaked at #24 in the USA, #1 in Norway and #3 in Sweden. 

Johnny Miller's comic rockabilly "Haunted House" was originally released in 1958. Fogerty remembered  the version from Bay Area pop radio. "It's arranged with a wonderful stretching-out section for guitar chicken-picking", he explained reasons why the tune ended up to The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again (Edna Gundersen, Interview with John Fogerty, USA Today, October 19th, 2009).

Personnel

Vocals, acoustic guitar: John Fogerty

Electric guitar: Buddy Miller

Steel guitar: Greg Leisz

Drums: Jay Bellerose

Bass: Dennis Crouch

Fiddle: Jason Mowery 

Live versions

The world premiere of the live version of "Haunted House" was seen in the free open air concert at Pier 17, South Street Seaport, New York, on September 2nd, 2009. Furthermore, Fogerty performed the number occasionally on the subsequent tour in the USA in fall 2009 and Europe in summer 2010. 

Fogerty and the band also delivered the song live on the Artist Confidential  series by Sirius XM satellite radio. It was taped at XM Performance Theatre in New York on September 4th, 2009, and broadcast in the USA on October 19th, 2009. 

Critical reception

"--- you can't deny his scratchy growl on deep cuts like the rockabilly barnburner 'Haunted House'. -Mark Kemp,The Rolling Stone, August 31st, 2009. 

"The arrangement that best captures the spirit of these sessions is Fogerty's romp through rockabilly's Jumpin' Gene Simmons' 1964 aliens-have-landed hit "Haunted House." It's a spirited reminder of an era when masterpieces, oddities and novelties marched side by side on AM pop radio, and could turn a kid's world upside down in three minutes." -Greg Kot, The Chicago Tribune, September 1st, 2009.

"And like a few country albums looking to fill some space, the waste of time, country-novelty tune, "Haunted House" is included here as well. That's always a sign of junk. Other than some clever guitar work on the Fogerty version, this song is simply awful. Other country stars such as John Anderson have recorded far better versions of this song years ago." -Paul Hooson, The Wizbang Pop, October 3rd, 2009.

Fans' views

"I am a bit disappointed with this one just because I expected more of a swampy sound with this one. I wanted more reverb and echo. This one will sound way better live than in the studio."

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