Creedence Clearwater Revival: Creedence Clearwater Revival (sky blue vinyl) [CONCORD JAZZ INC.]

Why you'll love it

This pressing puts the debut on sky blue vinyl. "Suzie Q." gave the band its first hit at No. 11, and the album went on to platinum in the US.

This edition

• Sky blue vinyl
• Stereo mix

About the album

Before Creedence Clearwater Revival there were the Golliwogs, a hard-working Bay Area band with a handful of singles and about three years of trying. Then Saul Zaentz bought Fantasy Records in 1967, offered them an album if they changed their name, and the rest is a very long run of radio play.

John Fogerty took the reins here, singing, playing lead guitar and arranging most of it. They stretched Dale Hawkins' "Suzie Q." out to about eight minutes so San Francisco's progressive station KMPX would play it, turned Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put a Spell on You" into a swampy slow burn, and tucked in "Porterville," the last single cut under the Golliwogs name. "Walk on the Water" is the one Creedence song John wrote with his brother Tom.

They cut it at Coast Recorders in San Francisco across late 1967 and early 1968, and it's the sound of a bar band discovering it's actually a great band. A new name, it turns out, does wonders.

Also at Kops: more Creedence Clearwater Revival on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Fantasy (cat# CR00828), a reissue of the 1968 album.