Proud Mary

"Proud Mary" is a rock song written by John Fogerty and first recorded by his band Creedence Clearwater Revival. The song was released by Fantasy Records as a single from the band's second studio album, Bayou Country, which was released by the same record company in January 1969. The single is generally considered to have been released in early January 1969 although at least one source states that it came out just before Christmas 1968. The song became a major hit in the United States, peaking at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1969, the first of five non-consecutive singles to peak at #2 for the group.

Background and recording

In a 1969 interview, Fogerty said that he wrote it in the two days after he was discharged from the National Guard. In the liner notes for the 2008 expanded reissue of Bayou Country, Joel Selvin explained that the songs for the album started when John Fogerty was in the National Guard, that the riffs for "Proud Mary," "Born on the Bayou," and "Keep on Chooglin'" were conceived by Fogerty at a concert in the Avalon Ballroom, and "Proud Mary" was arranged from parts of different songs, one of which was about a "washerwoman named Mary." The line "Left a good job in the city" was written following Fogerty's discharge from the National Guard, and the line "rollin' on the river" was from a movie by Will Rogers.

Proud Mary (band)

Proud Mary are an English blues/rock band from Royton, Oldham, Greater Manchester. The band was discovered by Noel Gallagher, and was the first to sign to the Oasis star's Sour Mash label. The third and fourth albums (Ocean Park and Pilgrim Fields respectively) saw a change in the songwriting dynamic. The first two albums (Same Old Blues and Love and Light) had been mostly dominated by Paul Newsome. Ocean Park was more of a shared effort between Greg and Paul (with re-recorded songs from Gregs solo album 'Glassbottom Boat' included.)