There’s something about the feel-good country-rock of Creedence Clearwater Revival that gets every music fans’ feet tapping. Their unique brand of southern-fried rock has always stood out, but especially in the time it was recorded during the ‘60s. While other bands were exploring hippie psychedelia, sitars and Eastern sounds, and mod or rocker edge, CCR was on its own, providing music that sounded like it was from a more innocent, bygone era.

CCR amassed an impressive stable of hit singles, from their earliest ear-pleaser, “Suzie Q,” to the slightly dark rendition of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put A Spell On You.” They quickly developed a following that would be well rewarded with incredibly catchy pop songs touching on everything from pained love to being born into a poor, southern family. In a still stunning flurry of activity, the band produced five albums in three years, from 1968 to 1970, yielding most of their best-known radio hits. With vocalist John Fogerty’s trademark wail, and the murky swamp feel evoked by most of their songs, the band became favorites with “Proud Mary,” “Born on the Bayou,” “Green River, “Bad Moon Rising,” “Down on the Corner,” “Fortunate Son,” “Looking Out My Back Door,” and “Who’ll Stop The Rain”—to name just a few.

What appealed to so many of their listeners, besides the fact that the band was working completely outside what was hot on the radio at the time, was the breadth of the subjects they’d sing about. Fogerty was a master of songwriting, blending almost mythical images of the south that included the runaway life of working on a steamboat in “Proud Mary.” He stirred emotion for the common, working man on songs like “Fortunate Son,” about the disparate difference of class still sadly alive and well in America. His imagery was colorful enough and real enough to listeners to make them believe Fogerty actually was born and bred in a small, ramshackle swamp town rather than his native San Francisco.

John Fogerty was the lynchpin of the band, directing its evolution and the sound of its albums and songwriting. Unfortunately, internal stress proved too much for the band, eventually creating rifts between the members, who one by one left for solo projects.