A Memorial Day Birthday shout-out to Rocker and Army veteran John Fogerty, born 5/28/1945 in Berkeley, California.

 

John, Doug Clifford and Stu Cook formed a group called Blue Velvet while in high school in El Cerrito, CA.  John's brother Tom would join later. The band got signed by Fantasy records and then blind-sided when a label exec renamed the group the Golliwogs, something the group discovered when opening a box of their newly pressed records 

 

The name was changed to Creedence Clearwater Revival by the group in 1967, but the band remained stuck in a contract that allowed the label to control the publishing rights to every CCR song. 

 

Fogerty retaliated by writing two songs purportedly targeting the label exec on his 1985 solo album Centerfield, triggering a lawsuit against the singer.  The label also sued him claiming the song Old Man Down The Road on that album was lifted from the chorus of the CCR song Run Through The Jungle... which came down to Fogerty being sued for plagiarizing himself. A countersuit filed by Fogerty eventually got settled in his favor by the U.S. Supreme Court.

 

Not wanting to generate money for the label during the dispute, Fogerty refused to perform Creedence songs in solo concerts for many years. 

 

Things within Creedence were also contentious.  Fogerty wrote virtually all of the songs and considered himself in charge. When his brother quit in 1971, Clifford and Cook wanted more say in band decisions.  John offered them more input and credit on songs for what would prove to be the group's last album together, 1972's Mardi Gras.

In the relatively brief period that all was well within the band, CCR was prolific.  The albums Bayou Country, Green River and Willy and the Poor Boys were all released in 1969.  In just 5 years of recording as a group, Creedence recorded 9 albums - 7 studio releases and a pair of live albums.