Creedence Clearwater Revival's breakup was a long and bitter one, particularly since
two of the band members, John and Tom Fogerty, were brothers. Everyone involved has their
own version of events. So how did it all shake out? This is CCR's breakup timeline explained.
The iconic classic rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival got its modest start in a junior high
school band room in El Cerrito, California. According to Louder Sound, drummer Doug "Cosmo"
Clifford still remembers going up to John Fogerty, who was playing piano at the time,
and telling him he was a good musician. The two ended up starting a band at the age of 14.
Clifford's friend Stu Cook joined them — at first on piano and later on bass — and then
John's older brother Tom joined in as well. But they still weren't quite CCR just yet.
After signing with Fantasy Records and its owner, Saul Zaentz, in 1964, the foursome
went through a few name changes, going from the Blue Velvets to the Golliwogs to - finally
- Creedence Clearwater Revival. That name was a mish-mash of different things: The first
word was a friend's name, the second referenced a beer commercial, and the third word worked
as a "statement of intent."
The band had their first break with 1968's cover of Dale Hawkins' "Susie Q," But that was just the beginning.
"What did you feel when you got your first gold album?" "That was sort of icing on the
cake.”
Starting with"Susie Q", Creedence Clearwater Revival landed plenty of hit singles on their
first six albums. Some of their famous songs from this prolific stretch of years include
"Who'll Stop the Rain," "Proud Mary," "Bad Moon Rising," "Fortunate Son," and "Down on the Corner."
It seems crazy today, when artists like Beyoncé might take years off between albums, but Creedence
Clearwater Revival put out their first six albums in just three years. In fact, in 1969,
they released three albums - and all three hit the top ten, with Green River landing at number one.
During this incredibly prolific period, John Fogerty became the band's main songwriter
in addition to being their lead singer and manager. He had a relentless work schedule,
and crafted his music around the themes and issues of the time, such as the Vietnam War.
His single-minded devotion to his craft made the band superstars. But it also made him
enemies, many of them inside the band itself.
Tom Fogerty was Creedence Clearwater Revival's rhythm guitarist, and originally their lead
singer. But it would be his younger brother John who would become the band's clear leader
and breakout talent. And that seems to have sparked a sibling rivalry that lasted the
rest of their lives, though who exactly was at fault depends on who you ask.
In 2000, John told The Guardian that it was Tom's jealousy that caused the rift.
"The best I can say in Tom's case is he was the older brother and the younger brother
had a lot more talent, therefore he was jealous even to a greater degree than the other two
in Creedence Clearwater Revival."
Others, though, paint John as a controlling egomaniac who insisted everything be about
him, and who denigrated the contributions of his bandmates, including his older brother.
Whatever the case, we know one thing for sure: in 1971, Tom left the band over issues with
creative control. He went on to a solo career, releasing albums throughout the 1970s, but
only 1972's Tom Fogerty landed on the charts.
Despite the friction between the Fogerty brothers, CCR managed to get it together long enough
to play for Tom's wedding in 1980. Tom and John remained at odds, however; Tom considered
their label head Saul Zaentz to be his best friend, while John considered Zaentz to be
his worst enemy. Tom and John never reconciled before Tom tragically passed away in 1990 from AIDS.
"Stu, have you ever run into a situation where you didn't like one another or you had a very, very bad argument?"
"Yeah. We checked our equipment quite frequently."
Prior to the band's last album, Mardi Gras, John Fogerty was Creedence Clearwater Revival's
main songwriter. But following six incredibly successful albums with John Fogerty as the
dominant creative force in the band, around 1970 the other members began to agitate for
more input: they didn't want to just be John's backing band, they wanted to create music themselves.
According to AllMusic, after Tom Fogerty quit the band in 1971, he complained that his contributions
to the band had been unappreciated. And though Stu Cook and Doug Clifford didn't leave the
group, they clearly felt the same way, as they approached John and asked for more creative input.
Exactly what happened next is still a matter hotly debated and argued by the band members.
According to Stu Cook and Doug Clifford, John told them that if they really wanted that,
then he would refuse to contribute anything to the next album other than rhythm guitar.
They would have to write all the songs themselves - or else he would quit the band.
John, on the other hand, claims that it was Clifford and Cook who threatened to quit the
band if he didn't turn over control and allow them equal creative freedom.
Whatever the case, the result was the 1972 album Mardi Gras - and it would destroy the band in more ways than one.
Mardi Gras was CCR's seventh album, and it would also be their last. Whatever threats
and promises were made, in the end, the band divided up the creative duties: John Fogerty
wrote three songs, Doug Clifford wrote three songs, Stu Cook wrote four songs, and they
threw in a cover of the Ricky Nelson tune "Hello Mary Lou." Fogerty played rhythm guitar
on his bandmates' songs as promised, but didn't contribute to them in any other way, refusing to sing on them.
Though the album was commercially successful, it was a critical disaster. Rolling Stone
critic Jon Landau wrote
"The result is [...] the worst album I have ever heard from a major rock band."
Landau also called the album, quote, "Fogerty's Revenge," believing it to be a petty and self-destructive
- but successful - way to publicly prove to the world that it was he and not his bandmates
who had created CCR's earlier success.
The band's implosion was complete.
The band announced its official breakup on October 16, 1972, just six months after the
release of Mardi Gras. Considering the high profile departure of Tom Fogerty in 1971 and
the public sniping and clashes of ego from the band, the breakup came as a surprise to absolutely nobody.
But it remained shocking in one way: the band was still incredibly popular. Even with the
terrible reviews for Mardi Gras, the album still hit number 12 on the Billboard charts,
spawning one top ten hit in "Sweet Hitch-Hiker." And the band was coming off a massively successful
1971 tour of both the United States and Europe. There's no doubt that the band could have
continued to have great success - if they could have gotten along.
Instead, they each went in their own direction. In hindsight, though, it turns out they were
all heading in the same direction after all: down.
After the band's breakup, Fogerty refused to play CCR's music for nearly a decade and a half. Of that time, he said in 2014,
"I had so much anger, I was afraid that I'd start singing 'Proud Mary' and go off on a
tirade. If one of my songs came on the car radio, I'd change the station."
Fogerty continued on in a solo career but was also beset by lawsuits, particularly from
Fantasy Records and its owner, Saul Zaentz, who had signed Creedence Clearwater Revival in the first place.
Fogerty released an album of covers in 1973, spawning two Top 40 hits in the process. Then,
in 1975, he put out the eponymous album John Fogerty, which included another Top 40 hit single.
And then… nothing.
In 1976, he completed an album called Hoodoo. But it was rejected by his new label for not
being good enough. Fogerty agreed, eventually requesting that the master recordings be destroyed.
Embroiled in lawsuits with Zaentz, Fogerty stopped making music.
It wasn't until 1985, a full decade after the release of John Fogerty, that he finally
made his comeback with Centerfield - the only number 1 solo album of his career. He has
continued to release solo albums ever since.
Stu Cook was Creedence Clearwater Revival's bassist. After the band dissolved, Cook and
Clifford joined the Don Harrison Band for two albums, then in 1979 Cook branched out into producing.
Just as John Fogerty was hitting the top of the charts again in the mid-80's, though,
Cook also hit the big time again. In 1986, Cook officially joined the country group Southern
Pacific. Over the next five years, the group released three albums, landing 11 songs on
the Billboard Top 40 Country Charts, and another on Billboard's Top 40 Adult Contemporary chart.
Southern Pacific ultimately broke up in 1991, but it wouldn't be long before Cook reunited
with his old CCR bandmates - for better or worse.
In 1993, Creedence Clearwater Revival was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Traditionally, newly inducted members perform as part of the celebration. But John Fogerty
was adamant that he would never perform with Cook and Clifford again, as they had sold
their stakes in Creedence Clearwater Revival to Fogerty's archnemesis, Saul Zaentz.
"Mr. Zaentz, in the trial, gave the testimony that he actually got the idea to sue me from
my former bandmates."
So when the time came for CCR to play, Fogerty was instead joined by an all-star band including
Bruce Springsteen. Cook and Clifford walked out of the event in protest. According to
the Los Angeles Times, Cook later wrote a letter of protest to the Hall of Fame, which
read in part,
"What the hell were you people thinking when you allowed one member to take the stage and
play the songs the band made famous, while the other members were expected to sit in
the audience?"
Fogerty later claimed in his autobiography Fortunate Son: My Life, My Music that Cook
and Clifford knew in advance they wouldn't be playing together and their protest was
a sham to garner public sympathy. But Cook told Uncut,
"It was humiliating. It was like John thought he was getting inducted, instead of Creedence.
He thought he could exclude us."
Two years later, the tables would be turned.
Following the snub at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cook and Clifford apparently decided
that turnabout was fair play, and in 1995 they reunited to form Creedence Clearwater
Revisited - a band where they played CCR's old hits without John Fogerty.
It wasn't the first time the pair had reunited. In 1972, following CCR's breakup, Clifford
initially went solo, releasing the album Cosmo to little fanfare. A few years later, he joined
Cook in a new group, The Don Harrison Band. Though that project was also short lived,
Cook and Clifford remained friends, so playing again together in Creedence Clearwater Revisited
made sense.
Well, it made sense to them, at least. But it didn't go over well with Fogerty, and a
new round of lawsuits resulted, eventually leading to an out of court settlement.
Creedence Clearwater Revisited continued performing for more than two decades before Clifford
and Cook officially retired in 2019. Health issues played a part. Besides receiving cancer
treatments, Clifford announced in April 2020 that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's
disease. He told Vermillion County First,
"I could tell things were going to change, and I didn't want to be up there with the
boys and Stu and have to walk or crawl off the stage."
Clifford hasn't given up on music, though, as in 2020 he finally released a second solo
album, Magic Window, which is made up of lost tracks he originally recorded back in 1985.
As unlikely as the possibility of a CCR reunion may seem, in 2014, John Fogerty actually hinted
at the three surviving working together again. But by that point, Doug Clifford and Stu Cook
weren't interested. Clifford told Uncut,
"It might have been a nice idea 20 years ago, but it's too late."
Still, the band members seem to have finally put aside their longstanding hostility. In
2020, the group announced that they had come together to form an LLC to promote Creedence
Clearwater Revival's merchandise and legacy.
Clifford told the Arizona Republic that he's glad he and Fogerty are finally on the same page, saying,
"I wouldn't say it's a warm and fuzzy thing. But I'm at the point in my life, I'm 75 years
old and I've got a real great opportunity with 'Magic Window.' He's off playing with
his kids now. We've been through a lot together. And I wish him well."
And Cook assured ABC News that as unlikely as it seems, the bad feelings really are a thing of the past.
"I really think that at this point, people are really not sure that we've actually mended
fences enough to do business with. But it's true. It's all true!"
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