Proud Mary

Background

“Proud Mary”, backed with “Born on the Bayou”, was the first 45 rpm single Creedence Clearwater Revival released in 1969. It also opens the Bayou Country album. “Born on the Bayou” was going to be the first original single of the band, but radio went with “Proud Mary”.

The single was recorded at RCA Studios in Los Angeles with engineer Hank McGill. The Bayou Country sessions in October 1968 were the first Creedence Clearwater held at RCA. After cutting the single "Bad Moon Rising" backed with "Lodi", the band recorded the following releases at Wally Heider Recording in San Francisco until June 1971.

“Proud Mary” peaked at #2 in the USA, #8 in the UK, #4 in Germany and #11 in the Netherlands. It was the first of the band's five singles that ended up at #2, and was the first million selling single for the group.

The genesis of “Proud Mary” dates back in summer 1967. After the Army Service, John Fogerty bought a little empty notebook at his local drugstore. The very first title he wrote in it was “Proud Mary”. He had no idea what that title meant. At the time he thought maybe it was a domestic maid who worked for some rich people and she's wearing a little white uniform (Tom Pinnock, John Fogerty's guide to Creedence Clearwater Revial, The Uncut, August 10th, 2012). 

Fogerty was still in the Army Reserve, when in mid-July 1968, he received his honorable discharge from the United States Army. After reading the letter, he went onto a little patch of grass in front of the apartment house and did a couple of cartwheels. He then went right in the house and came up with the first line ("left a good job in the city"). He wrote the rest of "Proud Mary" within the following week and a half. The number was arranged from parts of different songs, one of which was about a "washerwoman named Mary." The line "rollin' on the river" was from a movie by Will Rogers about the old paddle wheelers although he didn't recall it at the time when he was doing the part (Joel Selvin, Liner notes for the 40th Anniversary Edition of Bayou Country, 2008).

The intro of “Proud Mary” has a resemblance to Beethoven's Fifth. John Fogerty remembers fooling around with Beethoven’s 5th, which he didn’t know exactly how to play. He used to tell people that the song sounds like what it's about. He thought that the opening riff sounded just like the wheel at the back of a boat. Proud Mary is not a side-wheeler, it's a stern-wheeler. He has also mentioned Stax riff-meister Steve Cropper as a key influence, check out the intro "Midnight Hour" as an example of a simple progression but with different intonation (Harold Steinblatt, Interview with John Fogerty, The Guitar World, August 1998.)

Recording session

After recording the music track at RCA Studios, Tom, Stu and Doug tried to tape the backing vocals. It didn't work. They went for a dinner at a restaurant called Two Guys from Italy.  John stayed at the studio and recorded the backing vocals by himself in 45 minutes.   He wanted the sound of good vocal groups into it, like the Swan Silvertones, the Sensational Nightingales or the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi. It didn't go just "Rollin', rollin', rollin'" but "RRRROllin’", RRRROllin’, RRRROllin’", like an explosion (John Fogerty, Fortunate Son. 2015).

"Proud Mary" was mixed in stereo, but very narrow stereo.

Equipment

John Fogerty used a Gibson ES-175 guitar in the recording session. He played in open D (D-A-D-F#-A-D) tuning (John Fogerty, Fortunate son, 2015).

Trivia

"Proud Mary" was originally released in Britain with "I Put A Spell On You" on flip side. This was quickly withdrawn and replaced with "Born on the Bayou" on the B-side. 

After hearing "Proud Mary", folk artist Pete Seeger contacted Fogerty and thanked him "for writing a song that people keep singing up and down the Hudson" (Jim Bessman, Interview with Pete Seeger, Reuters, October 10th, 2004). 

Collector's notes

A "Proud Mary" b/w "Born on the Bayou" single was released with a similar cover sleeve in Germany, France and Italy. It was different from the one launched in Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway and Spain. The Belgian print had two different cover sleeves (Peter Koers, Green River, 1999).   

Live versions

The first documented concert with “Proud Mary” in the set-list was held at Fillmore West in San Francisco on March 14th, 1969. However, it's very likely that Creedence Clearwater performed the song in their weekly gigs at Deno & Carlo's before recording the number. Stu Cook recalled in the Finnish documentary on Creedence Clöearwater in1994 that most of the material on Bayou Country was tried out on the audience at this San Francisco club before hitting the studio

The band performed “Proud Mary” as playback on the Ed Sullivan Show on March 9, 1969, and on the Johnny Cash Show on September 27. Ed Sullivan Show was also the TV debut of the band.

By summer 1969, “Proud Mary” had consolidated its position in the set lists of Creedence Clearwater. It was heard regularly on their gigs until the breakup of the group in 1972.

“Proud Mary” appears on two Creedence Clearwater live albums: The Concert and Live in Europe. A concert version taped in Stockholm, Sweden, on September 21, 1971, was added to the 40th Anniversary Edition of Bayou Country as a bonus track in 2008.

During his solo career, John Fogerty performed “Proud Mary” live for the first time with Keith Richards, Ron Wood and Jerry Lee Lewis at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Waldorf-Astoria in New York on January 23, 1986.

On February 19, 1987, Fogerty was jamming with Bob Dylan, Jesse Ed Davis and Taj Mahal at Palomino Club in Los Angeles. Dylan told Fogerty that he must start playing "Proud Mary" or “people would start thinking that Ike and Tina Turner wrote it”. Eventually, Fogerty played the song by request at Palomino.

After beginning regular touring in spring 1997, “Proud Mary” has remained a regular number in his concerts, usually heard in the encore. One of the few major concerts where the song was not performed includes Glastonbury Festival in 2007. On his residency in Las Vegas in January 2016, "Proud Mary" was heard as the opener of the show for the first time during Fogerty's career. 

“Proud Mary” appears on each of his three live DVDs: Premonition (1998), The Long Road Home (2006) and Comin' Down the Road (2009).

Extraordinary live versions of the song include the one John Fogerty performed as a duet with Tina Turner in London, UK, on July 15, 2000. It's the one and only occasion John Fogerty and Tina Turner shared the stage. To promote his name in Europe as a man behind the bunch of Creedence Clearwater Revival classics, John Fogerty toured as a supporting act to Tina Turner in 19 concerts on the continent in summer 2000.

A horn trio Nathan Collins (saxophone),  Steve Robinson (trombone) and Ethan Chilton (trumpet) contributed the song in live concerts on the Blues And Bayous Tour in summer 2108. The brass brought some Tina Turner flavour to the number. 

In Earthquake Relief in Oakland, California, broadcast on November 26, 1989, Fogerty performed the song together with Bonnie Raitt. Actor Jeff Bridges, who's remembered from his role in The Big Lebowski, joined Fogerty in Sturgis, South Dakota, to perform "Proud Mary" live on stage on August 11th, 2011.  It was aired live by AXS-TV in the USA.

Fogerty also delivered an acoustic version of "Proud Mary" with US Army band Six-String Soldiers at North Las Vegas VA Medical Center on September 15th, 2016. 

In the movies

Proud Mary performed by Creedence Clearwater appeaers in numerous films including

• Desperate Measures (1998)

• Fun Buns Contest (1975)

• Still Smokin' (1983)

• Who'll Stop the Rain (1978)

I's also featured in several TV series, including

• Banda sonora, episode #3.4 (2008)

• Hinter Gittern - Der Frauenknast, episode Im Visier (2002)

• Knight Rider, episode Knight of the Phoenix: Part 1 (1982)

• No me la puc treure del cap, episode Cancons que curen (2012)

• Road Trip, episode Memphis to New Orleans (2004)

• The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, episode The Mario Monster Mash/Rolling Down the River (1989) (original airing and UK DVD only)

• Tohuwabohu, episode Kapitel 6 (1992)

Critical reception

""Proud Mary" is a good, easy-rolling song concerning a Mississippi river-boat. The Fogerty's guitars help to create a gentle, flowing mood." -Ray Rezos, The Rolling Stone, March 1st, 1968.

"---the song is filled with details that ring so true that it feels autobiographical. The lyric is married to music that is utterly unique yet curiously timeless, blending rockabilly, country, and Stax R&B into something utterly distinctive and addictive. "Proud Mary" is the emotional fulcrum at the center of Fogerty's seductive imaginary Americana, and while it's the best song here, his other songs are no slouch, either." -Thomas Erlewine, All Music.

Fans' views

"It is America, it's the epitome of classic songs ... it's simple and addicting and almost everyone in the world knows it."

"It's an all-time classic. It's to wedding receptions as "Happy Birthday to You" is to birthday parties!"

"Perhaps the quinesential song of American rock and roll. On the same plateau as Johnny B. Goode."

"Good lyrics, it pulls you along, great guitar work, very catchy."

"The only Creedence song that I can play."

"The first CCR song i've heard and you can't forget your first love."

Legacy

The Rolling Stone placed "Proud Mary" at number 155 on its list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2011. 

In 2014, fans selected "Proud Mary" as the best song John Fogerty has written. 

The 2013 remake

A remake of "Proud Mary" appears on the John Fogerty collaboration album Wrote a Song for Everyone. The version was recorded with Jennifer Hudson (vocals), Allen Toussaint (piano) and the Rebirth Brass Band with Rockin' Dopsie (washboard) and Anthony “Dopsie” Rubin (accordion) at Piety Studio in New Orleans on the afternoon of June 6, 2012. Mr. Toussaint also worked on the song arrangement with Fogerty. The new version connects rock, R&B, Cajun and zydeco styles.

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