The one cover that humbled John Fogerty: “I was just blown away”
There are few finer compliments as a songwriter than having a peer, especially an artist one admires greatly, covering your song, which is a sensation familiar to Creedence Clearwater Revival’s John Fogerty.
Over the years, Fogerty has had the opportunity to sing his own songs with all-time greats like Bruce Springsteen, who grew up believing that Creedence Clearwater Revival walked on water. Fogerty has also had the honour of Johnny Cash recording a spine-tingling version of ‘Have You Ever Seen The Rain?’, and Pearl Jam performing live covers of ‘Fortunate Son’ that blow the roof of whatever building they are in.
However, while each of the above is a source of pride for Fogerty, no cover of his material will come close to Tina Turner’s take on ‘Proud Mary’, which is, for my money, one of the finest covers of all time. Undoubtedly, there’ll be plentiful of people out there that are, somehow, only familiar with Turner’s recording, and don’t even realise that it’s not original material.
There is an art to creating a cover that separates it from glorified karaoke. It needs to be taken into a new musical territory, which the ‘Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll’ did on ‘Proud Mary’, thanks to her powerful, soulful vocals that couldn’t sound further away from Fogerty’s original. As much as Creedence Clearwater Revival’s original is masterful, Turner’s exists in a different league.
Turner recorded her cover in 1971, and the original had been a huge hit only two years prior for Creedence Clearwater Revival. Therefore, it was a brave choice to record a track that was already incredibly popular and had been a radio mainstay in recent times. However, due to her spectacular talent, she made the masses fall in love with ‘Proud Mary’ all over again.
Fogerty wrote ‘Proud Mary’, which is a song very close to his heart, in 1968 upon finally being discharged from the army, allowing him to focus primarily on Creedence Clearwater Revival. Before this moment, Fogerty was stuck between an almost impossible balancing act, hindering the band’s chances of fulfilling their potential.
Therefore, when Fogerty was finally allowed to leave the army behind, he was overwhelmed by euphoric jubilation. In the book Bad Moon Rising: The Unofficial History of Creedence Clearwater Revival, he recalled: “This was 1968, and people were still dying. I was so happy, I ran out into my little patch of lawn and turned cartwheels. Then I went into my house, picked up my guitar and started strumming. ‘Left a good job in the city’ and then several good lines came out of me immediately.”
‘Proud Mary’ captured Fogerty’s relief in a bottle, and Creedence Clearwater Revival achieved great success following the track’s release. To date, it’s been covered by over 100 artists, but according to Fogerty, nobody comes close to Turner.
During a Reddit AMA, Fogerty was quizzed by one fan about his favourite Creedence Clearwater Revival cover, to which he replied: “When Tina Turner did ‘Proud Mary ‘, I was just blown away. We’ve all heard it for 50 years now, and I still remember when I was driving my car and first heard it on the radio.”
He continued: “I was a fan of Tina Turner’s voice; back in high school, I used to do a couple of her songs. When I heard her version, the reworking, and the slow version and then going into the sped-up part, I absolutely loved that.”
Turner making ‘Proud Mary’ her own could have been a source of bitterness for Fogerty. After all, he was the person who wrote the song, and it was his lived experience that fuelled its creation. Instead, he views the recording as the ultimate honour, which he holds dear.
