How John Fogerty helped to launch the career of his own childhood hero with a 1971 single
One of the many reasons why the 1960s was such a productive year for rock and roll revolution was that the artists who constructed those scenes were the first generation to have grown up in the wake of rock ‘n’ roll, R&B, and soul. John Fogerty, for instance, owed a considerable part of his musical inspiration to Tina Turner.
Long before she was the legendary ‘acid queen’ of her mid-1970s solo stardom, Turner was not revered by mass audiences in quite the same way. She spent much of her early career, alongside Ike Turner, gigging around the chitlin’ circuit with various other currently underappreciated but future stars of R&B, blues, and soul.
Even when Phil Spector swooped in to record the masterpiece that was ‘River Deep, Mountain High’ in 1966, mainstream audiences in the US weren’t overly interested.
Nevertheless, John Fogerty was a natural disciple of Ike and Tina Turner, making it all the more bizarre when the couple covered his song, ‘Proud Mary’, which had been a jewel in the countercultural repertoire of Creedence Clearwater Revival during their hippie heyday.
“I had been a fan of Tina for a few years,” the songwriter once recalled to The Zach Sang Show.
“In fact,” he continued, “I think it was after high school that Ike and Tina had a song called ‘I Think It’s Gonna Work Out Fine’ and it had this really cool vibrato guitar intro that I really loved, and Tina came in… I was always pulling for her, I guess you’d say. In my gut, I didn’t understand why she wasn’t a big-big star.”
That sentiment was shared by virtually everybody who encountered Ike and Tina Turner during their infancy. Their unparalleled musical excellence seemed destined to make the pair stars, but it didn’t quite work out for them, at least until ‘Proud Mary’ hit the airwaves. Released in 1971, their cover shot to number four on the US pop charts. More importantly, though, it also helped Tina Turner break free from that partnership.
“When I heard ‘Proud Mary’,” Fogerty shared. “I actually felt like ‘She’s gonna make it! She’s made it! Cool!’ It was a breath of fresh air.” Make it, she certainly did. After years of being held back by the abusive relationship and restrictive musical partnership of Ike Turner, ‘Proud Mary’ became a key milestone in spurring Turner onto the solo career that would cement her stardom.
It wasn’t until a few years later, in 1974, that Turner properly launched her solo career with an LP, and another few years later that she finally divorced Ike Turner. However, throughout her extensive career as a solo performer, ‘Proud Mary’ remained an inescapable aspect of her output, so much so that her version of the song has arguably outshone Creedence Clearwater Revival’s original – although Fogerty didn’t seem to mind.
After all, the success of ‘Proud Mary’ not only reaffirmed Fogerty’s credentials as a songwriting master, but it also provided him with the unique experience of having helped a musical hero from his own adolescence to elevate their career beyond all expectations.
