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Results of the survey held in spring 2014 on the following Creedence Clearwater related social media sites, web forums and mailing lists on the Internet:
There're also some grounds by which voters reasoned their picks.
1. Proud MaryThe song that introduced me to CCR, Tina Turner's version never came close.
The first CCR song i've heard and you can't forget your first love.
2. Have You Ever Seen the Rain
A soaringly beautiful melody.
Something entirely different, there isn’t any song, anywhere, which is similar. If anything is deceptively simple then this is it. No guitar solo but amazingly enough you don’t miss it. But organ comes along genuinely. And the voice, it just couldn’t be better!
My personal favourite as I love the melody and the words resonate with me. I also love the way John sings it in the original version.
It has grown up bigger than itself, beautiful melody, but still street-wise and everyone can sing along. Fogerty´s strong voice.
Girls all over the world always recognise this song.
Saying goodbye to CCR and great Hammond organ!
3. Ramble Tamble
CCR's coolest long song IMO. Love that neat little back-and-forth sounding guitar lick in the CCR recording when the song first transitions from the lyric part to the middle instrumental part; I've never heard John quite replicate that in his live versions of the song.
So many great things in “just” one song. Woooo-oooo-oooo sounds are simply amazing. And it rocks like hell.
The original CCR version is probably one of THE best rock titles of all ages, but vastly underrated, likely because of its length. The brilliancy of Fogerty as a composer AND arranger really shines...
A great song with a great guitar solo.
The best rock song ever, especially the original CCR version.
4. Green River
Green River was not the first Creedence song I'd heard - Proud Mary was the song that first caught my attention, at the age of 11 - but that swampy sound hooked me for good. The instant I heard that opening guitar riff - I still remember the moment. I came home from school, walked through my bedroom door, and flipped on the radio, and there it was - I froze. It was like magic. All my friends were into the Beatles and the Stones, and while I liked all their music, it wasn't "me." All of a sudden, it was like finding myself. Green River made Creedence "my" band.
The other song defining Swamp Rock. And another song which somehow is totally different than anything else. You can imagine a long freight train (with a few passangers, you included) passing by a big swampy area at some remote location and all of a sudden Creedence Clearwater Revival is there in the swamp, pounding Green River and doing it LOUD.
I like songs that tell real stories.
5. Up Around the Bend
One of the best guitar hooks of all time! The perfect summer song.
Strong song, great voice . Everything is top in this song.
Real rock music. Lead guitar´s sound is similar to Fogerty´s voice.
That reminds me of a summer vacation in the mountains in 1970.
A well known John Fogerty song – thanks to Hanoi Rocks!
6. Born on the Bayou
Born on the Bayou is probably my ultimate all-time favorite Creedence song. If I had to choose one song to introduce CCR to someone, to best portray what CCR is for me, it'd have to be Born on the Bayou. It captures the essence of CCR. This song makes me feel invincible. It's a power song that I love to listen to when I feel beaten down by something. It's simply my song.
To put it simply this song, along with Green River, defines Swamp Rock, plain and clear. And God Almighty how it rocks. Great, raw voice and guitar solos you are bound to mimic with your mouth.
Quintessential Fogerty, both lyrically and musically. Everything just fits together so well - the gritty vocals combined with the vivid swampy imagery and arguably the most original and complete Creedence band performance.
Best ever written guitar-solo. I say it´s written, because Fogerty plays it the same way every time. Here´s very strong voice too.
Great guitar riff, great sound, sends shivers down your spine.
Born On The Bayou is still the most ‘swampy’ sound and carataristic for CCR.
7. Who'll Stop the Rain
Simple and good. Everytime i hear it i get goosebumps.
For the woodstock connections.
Meaningful lyrics, great melody.
Song relates to so many things in life on so many different levels.
Reference to Woodstock and love the chord changes leading into third verse.
8. Bad Moon Rising
Embodies of what I think of JCF when he is at his best: a dark theme within an eminently dance-able and happy music (see Haunted House).
The first CCR song I ever heard.
It always sounds fresh and compelling no matter how may times I hear it.
9. Wrote A Song For Everyone
WASFE was another of those magical cuts off the Green River album, which to this day is my favorite Creedence album. I loved the guitar, the dreaminess of it, the overarching philosophy it espoused. It established John as a deep thinker, at least to me. He certainly wasn't writing love songs, which is what everyone else did. This is another reason I loved his music.
It has everything, the greatest guitar solo, fantastic voice, excellent lyrics (message is ambiguous, if you will (forget official interpretation!). It sounds sentimental if volume is low, it rocks if volume is high, it’s just great.
10. Rockin' All Over the World
When he play it live everyone sings it with him. A prove that a great song must haven't difficult an a lot lyrics.
It has grown up bigger than itself. Fogerty´s voice is at his best.
A very well known John Fogerty song – thanks to Status Quo!
Underrated Fogerty-song. John should have had the credits for this song right from the start.
That song is an anthem of rock and roll.
11. Fortunate Son
Seeing the band perform this song on the Ed Sullivan Show solidified CCR as the band I was destined to follow throughout my life.
Quite possibly THE protest song of the 1960's. Straight and to the point, the venom of the ragged vocals is a perfect partner for the undying message of the this timeless tune.
A song that can stil be ‘up-to-date’ for many decades.
The best live song ever.
12. Mystic Highway
John's newest classic (at least in my mind). The lyrics speak to me and everyone of my generation who are slowly realizing that we are much closer to the end of our earthly lives than to the beginning. I LOVE the way the guitars happily play out the album version of the song; I disagreed with fading this out in the single version - It enables the song to end on such a happy high, portending a positive future - in whatever realm that may be.
So beatiful and so classic.
13. Lodi
14. Long As I Can See the Light
Sweet and sad. The closest thing John ever wrote to a love song - other than his song for Julie - but it was so much more than that. At the time of the Vietnam war, it was for all the soldiers, too. It was a song soldiers who were going away could sing, their girlfriends and their sisters and their mothers would all cry hearing it. But it also spoke to the restlessness of that generation, the restlessness and the idealism, the idea that love would wait, would always be there. And then of course on an even more personal level, it was about the constant leaving and coming home that a traveling musician experiences. Really a wonderful song to work on so many levels.
Fogerty has proudly shown his country roots and influences through the years, but his vocal style also owes a huge debt to old school soul and r&b. This soulful ballad proves that Fogerty has the vocal finesse and power to match the era's best.
15. Effigy
A lost classic. Again, Fogerty proves his genius of matching lyrical meaning with musical mood - the guitar work here is so hauntingly expressive. And while this song is clearly political, it is much less overtly so than other such Fogerty compositions, which makes it even more timeless.
16. Deja Vu (All Over Again)
Tribute to vets and sincere tone.
The perfect compliment to Fortunate Son in it's political statement.
17. Keep On Chooglin'
A very simple tune musically - the essence of rock n' roll. An exhilarating extended rave up. And a perfect mantra.
John is rocking his heart out with this song. I like his guitarplaying on this one.
Well this is a no-brainer. Keep On Chooglin' is special. It's the best song to dance live to, and it has a perfect message.
Rock & Roll the way it's meant to be!
Because he wrote this song for me and my wife. "Here comes Mary, lookin' for Harry; she 's gonna choogle tonight."
18. I Heard It Through the Grapevine
I just love the longer songs of Creedence. I think songs such as I Heard It Through the Grapevine have the CCR sound. It's hard to explain... It's also one of my live favorites, although it was best played when Billy Burnette was in the band.
Soulful, rock anthem, combines black culture, Mowtown and R&R.
Epic solo.
19. Down on the Corner
This was one of my favorites already as a kid. It's a nice song live. Happy, upbeat.
The working mans blue collar anthem.
20. Centerfield
I've always loved baseball, and the pure joy of that song - that's what it really is, joy captured in a few minutes of music, with the catchy claps and the foot-stomping guitar lick - I just love that joy. Takes me to the ballpark, and back to when I was a kid, playing baseball, every time.
21. Southern Streamline
22. Almost Saturday Night
When I was young and single, and drove a 1971 Mustang, I would go out on a weekend night, get in the car going to my girlfriend's house and have that song blaring. The windows would be down, I'd be singing at the top of my lungs ... that song captures what it's like to be young, and free, and looking forward to your weekend, whatever you might be doing. Never again in your life will you be that free of responsibility and that joyful over the end of another week. Every time I hear that song, it takes me back to that, and I feel that feeling, just a little bit, all over again. Plus it's just a damn good song.
23. Blue Boy
Blueboy has a certain cool vibe to it. When it starts, you know something good is about to happen. The same applies to the whole Blue Moon Swamp album. It's great music for on the road (as is CCR/Fogerty music in general) and when Southern Streamline starts, the road trip has officially started. This album is close to my heart because it came out around the time when I became a fan.
24. Old Man Down the Road
A great sound and cool lyrics.
The perfect sequel for Fogerty's come back.
25. Run Through the Jungle
Love the sound of RTTJ. It's dark, heavy and gritty.
26. Wicked Old Witch
27. I Saw It On TV
28. Hot Rod Heart
29. It Came Out of the Sky
30. Jambalaya (On the Bayou)
31. Lookin' Out My Back Door
Great country vibe and great lyrics.
32. Travelin' Band
33. Rambunctious Boy
34. Pagan Baby
The prime example of JCF's ability to arrange for maximum effect.
35. Walk on the Water
36. Midnight Special
37. Sweet Hitchhiker
De power of that song.
A fast rock song with a good melody and the right feeling.
38. Gunslinger
An Americana type song classic Fogerty lyrics
Because in Argentina, we need a gunslinger ... right now ..
39. Travelin' High
40. Hundred And Ten in the Shade
41. Where the River Flows
42. Sugar-Sugar
43. Someday Never Comes
"Someday Never Comes," where John revealed, for really the first time, some of his own personal hurt. He was never an average songwriter, never wrote what other songwriters wrote about. His mind went in a different direction, and that's what I always loved about him and his music.
44. Comin' Down the Road
45. (Wish I Could) Hideaway
46. The Wall
47. Bad Bad Boy
48. Suzie Q
49. Bring It Down to Jelly Roll
50. Blue Moon Nights
51. I Put A Spell On You
For literally decades, I thought that if I could just hear him do "Spell" live, I could then die and go to Heaven - because John singing "Spell" is just a step away from Heaven, you know it's not far from there at all.
52. Ninety-Nine And A Half (Won't Do)
53. Bootleg
54. Cotton Fields
55. Hey Tonight
56. Penthouse Pauper
A litlle bit different song, it´s blues, but not traditional. Very strong singing again.
57. Don't You Wish It Was True
This song made me cry the first time I heard it.
58. Cross-Tie Walker
The best of the less known Fogerty songs.
59. Nobody's Here Anymore
60. Dream Song
61. My Toot Toot
62. Swamp River Days
Love the opening riff. I also love the imagery.
63. I Ain't Never
64. Ooby Dooby
65. I Confess
66. Blue Ridge Mountain Blues
67. Blue Moon of Kentucky
68. Headlines
69. Longshot
Seems a song from the Cosmo's Factory era.
70. You Got Nothing On Me
71. Don't Look Now
72. Back in the Hills
73. Big Train (from Memphis)
74. Heart of Stone
75. Night Time Is the Right Time
76. Rock And Roll Girls
Love the sax in the Showtime Special version
77. Rhubarb Pie
78. Change in the Weather
79. Born to Move
80. Feelin' Blue
81. Good Golly Miss Molly
82. Poorboy Shuffle
83. Porterville
So powerful and dramatic.
84. Graveyard Train
85. She's Got Baggage
86. Honey Do
87. She Thinks I Still Care
88. Vanz Kant Danz
89. You're the Reason
This is the country music I like to listen.
90. Walkin' In A Hurricane
91. Sail Away (Eye of the Zombie)
So beautiful...
92. Endless Sleep
93. You Don't Owe Me
94. Somewhere Listening
95. Tombstone Shadow
96. It's Just A Thought
97. Commotion
98. Get Down Woman
Love blues, and this is a real blues song.
99. Long Dark Night
100. Hello Mary Lou
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