A Classic Album 5

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It’s been a couple of months since I last did one of my Classic Album series, so I think it’s time for another. But which one to choose? I started a list when I posted the first of these, and there are some great records on it. Today’s is one of them. It meets my criteria of being an album I bought when it first came out, and which I love as much today as I did back then. In case you didn’t spot the picture of the sleeve in my header picture, I’m going with the fifth album by Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) – Cosmo’s Factory. This was released in July 1970 and is by any criterion a classic album: it topped the charts in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and several other countries, spent nine weeks at the top in the US on its way to 4m sales and 4x Platinum status, and has been included in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, so I think its safe for me to say that it is a good one!

CCR comprised John Fogerty on vocals, lead guitar, piano, saxophone and harmonica,  his brother Tom on rhythm guitar, Stu Cook on bass and Doug Clifford on drums (not forgetting the cowbell, too). John was their main songwriter, and he wrote seven of the album’s eleven tracks – the other four were covers. I’m going to play seven of the tracks and provide links to the others – much though I’d like to play them all that would make for an over-long post!

So let’s get started. The opening track was a John Fogerty composition:

Ramble Tamble was, in my view, a great way to begin an album, and it just kept on getting better!

I’m just giving you a link to the next one, which was a cover of a song written by one Ellis McDaniel, whose full real name was Ellis Otha Bates. You may know him better as Bo Diddley:

Before You Accuse Me

Six of the album’s tracks were released as three double A-side singles, and due to the way the US counted these in their charts, where both sides got their own placing, all of them made the top five in the Billboard chart. This is the first of those, which had been released as a single in January 1970:

Travelin’ Band was coupled with Who’ll Stop The Rain, and made #2 in the Billboard chart, while the two tracks separately achieved #5 and #13 respectively in their Cashbox listing. Here in the UK we didn’t bother with details like that, so the first track was the one we saw as the single and it peaked at #8. It also made #1 in the Netherlands, #2 in Australia, and #4 in Canada. It’s rowdy and raucous, and I love it!

Next up was another of the cover versions. This was a song written back in 1955 by Wade Moore and Dick Penner, and was a rockabilly hit for a young Roy Orbison. This is CCR’s take on it:

Ooby Dooby

It was never going to win a Grammy, but it’s fun!

Side 1 Track 5 was the last of the three singles to be taken from the album, coinciding with its release:

Lookin’ Out My Back Door is another John Fogerty composition, which was coupled with Long As I Can See The Light and made #2 on Billboard, #1 and #57 respectively on Cashbox, and #20 in the UK. The double A-side also made #1 in Australia and Canada.

The closing track on Side 1, in those long gone days when you had to walk over to the record player to turn the disc over, was another of John’s:

Run Through The Jungle

If I’m honest that wasn’t my favourite track on the album at the time, but I liked it well enough and later came to realise how good it is as a piece of swamp rock.

On to Side 2 now. This is the way to do a restart:

The guy who posted that to YouTube claims it was an original official video for Up Around The Bend, but the band’s own YouTube page doesn’t include it. As a piece of its time I can understand why it might have been released as a comment on the Vietnam War, and can also understand why they might have taken it down. Either way, it is still a great song! This was released as a double A-side single with Run Through The Jungle, and I think this might have been a better video for that song. Combined, the songs peaked at #4 on Billboard, and separately they made #2 (Bend) and #48 (Jungle). Just about everywhere else treated Up Around The Bend as the single, and it reached #1 in Canada, Australia and the Netherlands, and #2 in the UK.

Side 2 Track 2 is another cover, this time of a song written by Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup, a US delta blues singer, songwriter and guitarist:

My Baby Left Me

I think CCR did ‘Big Boy’ justice with that.

The next track was the one which was originally coupled with Travelin’ Band as a single. This official video helpfully gives you the chords and lyrics so that you can play along, assuming you have more talent than I:

One of my favourites from the album, I think, and a plea heard from most Brits during what usually passes for our summer.

Next came the final cover version on the album. As released, this was an eleven minute epic, but the official video cuts it down to just under four minutes, presumably to get more attention:

I Heard It Through The Grapevine was written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, and had been a hit for both Gladys Knight and the Pips and Marvin Gaye before CCR took it into another dimension. And if you want the full version, you can find it here.

The album’s closing track was this one, which I mentioned earlier for its release as part of a single:

That video for Long As I Can See The Light was made in 2020 as part of the build up to support the 50th anniversary re-release of the album. In the lead-up to Father’s Day, Creedence fans worldwide were encouraged to submit videos and photos documenting cherished memories with their fathers, grandfathers or other guiding lights in their life. This was the result, and it includes some incredibly moving fan contributions.

So, that was my latest choice of A Classic Album. I hope you agree on that: to me it almost feels more like a greatest hits record, with all those single releases on it! And I hope you had fun joining the Travelin’ Band on the way back down Memory Lane.

Have a good day, and I’ll see you again for Song Lyric Sunday. Take care 😊

62 thoughts on “A Classic Album 5”

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  9. Well, I knew all but two of them, so that’s better than my usual, isn’t it? Great post, Clive … I do love CCR and coincidentally, I was thinking of playing one for my music post today, but instead, I think I’ll treat my readers to your wonderful post! Thanks for the great music and the memories!

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  10. I remember talking about Credence with you before. It’s one of those groups that I know most people like much more than me. I actually like some of their music, but I just don’t find Fogerty’s voice pleasant to listen to.

    As we’ve discussed many times about music, there is something for everyone. It actually makes it more interesting to me because people’s tastes can be so different.

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  12. Well, you can’t lose with CCR. (mostly; there is ‘Mardi Gras!) Pick out most any album there is little filler. It sounded like a ‘Greatest Hits’ even when it was new and the songs were fresh and brand new.

    The video of ‘Long As I Can See The Light’ has been beautifully done, and the fact it is at least in my top five Creedence songs helps me feel that. It’s one of those lyrically simple songs that has much more than what is being sung and said flowing through it. A masterclass IMHO.

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    • They kind of lost their way at the end after the others rebelled against John taking too much control, and proved he had been right to do so! This is a great album, and I still like hearing it. That final video is beautifully done, isn’t it.

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  13. ‘Run Through The Jungle’ is one of my favourite ‘angry’ songs for when I’m hitting the laptop keys for a political reason…. Ever since MAGA pulled their favourite creature out of THE Swamp, seems I’ve been listening to it a great deal.

    Travelin’ Band. 👍👍👍👍👍. Back in the day, one song I used to belt out when driving…by myself of course😉

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