Writer: John Fogerty
Producer: John Fogerty
Recorded: Wally Heider Studio in San Francisco, California
Released: August 1969
| Players: | John Fogerty — vocals, guitar Tom Fogerty — guitar Stu Cook — bass Doug Clifford — drums |
| Album: | Green River (Fantasy, 1969) |
“Green River” was the second single released by Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) from their Green River album.
Singer-guitarist John Fogerty said that there is no actual Green River, but that the song's images were inspired by a Cody's Camp family resort in the northern California town of Winters: “It was like the West Coast version of the Bayous…I learned how to swim there. There was a rope hanging from a tree. Certainly dragonflies, bullfrogs.”
The Green River reference actually came from a soda-pop flavor.
Fogerty said the idea for the song had been around for 14 years before the group recorded it: “'Green River' is obviously a tip of the hat to the Sun Records sound, but I can't think of any real specific song…I tend to think of something like 'Dream Baby' by Roy Orbison. Yet 'Green River' was much more rocking than that song, but the rhythm treatment fit.”
Green River was CCR's first Number One on the Billboard 200 chart, knocking off Blind Faith's album. It's sold well over three million copies.
After topping the album chart, Fogerty said, “In the back of my mind, I knew the game is to try to be Number One and try to be as popular as you can be.”
Nevertheless, he also said that Green River is his “favorite” CCR album: “The philosophical and musical place where it seemed to be resting was at the very center of my soul.”
