Their third release, "Bad Moon Rising", went to #2 in late June, with the flip side, "Lodi" charting at #78. With a giant hit record to their name, Creedence went from playing daytime college gigs to four consecutive nights at the Fillmore and an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.
John later admitted that he had never been to Mississippi when he wrote the song, nor had he been to Louisiana when he penned the B-side, "Born On The Bayou". It has since become a music industry standard, played by nearly every bar band and wedding singer in America. For the follow-up, the band released John's composition "Proud Mary", which quickly rose to #2 in early 1969 and was covered by thirty-five other artists that year. With John Fogerty now firmly at the helm as guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer, Creedence's first release was the neo-psychedelic reworking of Dale Hawkins' Rockabilly classic "Suzie Q", which became their first Billboard Top 40 hit, rising to #11 during a nine week run in the Fall of 1968. Zaentz would own the copyright to all of their songs, and they were obligated to come up with 180 songs over seven years. They were to receive 10 percent on their net, not gross sales. It was a mistake they would regret for many years. On January 5th, 1968, the band signed the new recording contract drawn up by Saul Zaentz without really understanding what they were agreeing to. The other three agreed it was better than The Golliwogs, and the new name stuck. He immediately thought of "clear water." From there it wasn't much of a stretch to combine some of the suggested names into Creedence Clearwater Revival.
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Then, on Christmas Eve, 1967, John saw a TV commercial for Olympia Beer, whose motto was "It's in the water." That was followed by a public service announcement for clean water. John thought of "Whiskey Rebellion", then "Whiskey Revival", but none of these sounded quite right. Tom was the one who suggested "Creedence", remembering a local apartment custodian named Credence Newball. They agreed, but took the opportunity to change their name.
In October, 1967, Saul Zaentz bought Fantasy Records and wanted to re-sign the band. After serving in the Army Reserve for two years, John and the others decided to give music their full-time attention. Unfortunately, as happened to many aspiring musicians in the mid-'60s, John was drafted in 1965. More local releases like "You Better Get It Before It Gets You" and "Fight Fire" followed. That song brought the group a lot more work, even opening for Sonny And Cher at the Memorial Auditorium in Sacramento. John was featured again on their fourth effort, "Brown Eyed Girl", which became a regional hit. For their third effort, "You Can't Be True", John sang lead, which gave the band a rougher, more soulful sound. Tom Fogerty sang lead on that tune and on their next single, "Where You Been" with John harmonizing. In November of '64 their first single, "Little Girl (Does Your Mamma Know?)" was ready, but to the band's surprise, Weiss had changed their name on the label to The Golliwogs in a effort to sound more modern. After listening to the band do a few instrumentals, Weiss invited them back to play some of their material that had lyrics and soon signed them to a recording contract. After seeing the show, an 18-year-old John Fogerty decided to approach Max Weiss at Fantasy about making some recordings. In March, 1964, a local PBS station ran a program called Anatomy Of A Hit, about a small time record company called Fantasy Records. A couple of years later they recorded a handful of other songs at Bob DeSousa's Sierra Sound Laboratories in Berkeley, honing their skills and learning their craft. Although the hobby record didn't sell many copies, it did get some air play on the local radio station, KWBR. Their first real opportunity to record came when a local singer named James Powell approached them to back him on a song called "Beverly Angel". One job led to another and soon the band was playing all around the Bay Area. In 1959, while in junior high school, the boys formed a band they called The Blue Velvets and played their first gig at Portola Junior High. Although their music evoked the raw, Gospel-tinged sound of the rural South, Doug Clifford, Stu Cook, and brothers Tom and John Fogerty actually hailed from El Cerrito, California, a small town near Berkeley. Unquestionably one of the greatest American Rock bands ever, Creedence Clearwater Revival will be remembered for their unique Bayou sound.