The American songbook would be incomplete without John Fogerty.
Over just a four-year span from 1968 to 1972 with Creedence Clearwater Revival, Fogerty had one of the most legendary runs in music history, amassing a collection of hits it’d take many songwriters a lifetime to write. Among the iconic songs he wrote during that period are “Proud Mary,” “Bad Moon Rising,” “Down on the Corner,” “Fortunate Son,” “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” and “Someday Never Comes,” to name just a few.
It’s a catalog so prolific that as of this week, CCR’s greatest hits album has spent its 800th week on Billboard’s 200 albums chart, a record for the fifth longest run in the chart’s history. With that resume in mind, Fogerty was arguably the most notable snub from The New York Times’ 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters list, up there with the likes of Billy Joel, Tom Waits and Randy Newman. Surprisingly, it doesn’t seem to bother Fogerty all that much.
“I mean, I would’ve been shocked but a lot of people weren’t mentioned,” Fogerty says with a disarming calmness when asked about the snub on a recent phone call. “There’s only 30, and you have to be alive. It’s pretty tough.”
It’s a refreshingly even-keeled answer in a business practically built on legacy and ego. But Fogerty is at peace with his career at this point.
