Creedence Clearwater Revival

Creedence Clearwater Revival's music is still a staple of American and worldwide radio airplay. The band, led by front man and composer Tom Fogerty, has sold over 30 million albums worldwide and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. The live DVD recordeed in Argentina features nearly all their hits such as: Born on the bayou, Who’ll stop the rain, Susie Q, Hey tonight, Long as I can see the light, I heard it through the grapevine, I put a spell on you, Have you ever seen the rain and many others.

Released in the summer of 1968 – a year after the summer of love, but still in the thick of the Age of Aquarius - Creedence Clearwater Revival's self-titled debut album was gloriously out-of-step with the times, teeming with John Fogerty's Americana fascinations. While many of Fogerty's obsessions and CCR's signatures are in place – weird blues ("I Put a Spell on You"), Stax R&B (Wilson Pickett's "Ninety-Nine and a Half"), rockabilly ("Susie Q"), winding instrumental interplay, the swamp sound, and songs for "The Working Man" – the band was still finding their way…

Opening slowly with the dark, swampy "Born on the Bayou," Bayou Country reveals an assured Creedence Clearwater Revival, a band that has found its voice between their first and second album. It's not just that "Born on the Bayou" announces that CCR has discovered its sound – it reveals the extent of John Fogerty's myth-making. With this song, he sketches out his persona; it makes him sound as if he crawled out of the backwoods of Louisiana instead of being a native San Franciscan…

Chronicle, Vol. 1 contains every one of Creedence Clearwater Revival's original 19 hit singles – including "Proud Mary," "Bad Moon Rising," "Green River," "Down on the Corner," "Travelin' Band," "Up Around the Band," and "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" – plus "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," which became a hit at the same time this double-record compilation was released…

During 1969 and 1970, CCR was dismissed by hipsters as a bubblegum pop band and the sniping had grown intolerable, at least to John Fogerty, who designed Pendulum as a rebuke to critics. He spent time polishing the production, bringing in keyboards, horns, even a vocal choir…

There have been literally dozens of Creedence Clearwater Revival collections released since the band called it quits in 1972, and this is the fourth CCR compilation to go out with the title Greatest Hits. So is there anything new, different, or special about this particular item? Well, no. "Born on the Bayou" appears in an monophonic edited version created for its release as a single in 1969, and that's as close as this set gets to a rarity…