Tom had quit the band the previous year, and John was at odds with the remaining members over matters of business and artistic control, all of which resulted in lawsuits among the former bandmates.

It has been certified 12x Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for at least 12 million copies sold in the U.S.[7] John Fogerty, Doug Clifford, and Stu Cook met at Portola Junior High School in El Cerrito, California.

Calling themselves the Blue Velvets, the trio played instrumentals and "jukebox standards",[8] and backed John's older brother Tom at recordings and performances before he joined the band.

[15] In early 1968, the band began appearing regularly at local San Francisco area clubs and venues including Deno and Carlo's, the Avalon Ballroom, and the Fillmore West.

By 1968, AM radio programmers around the U.S. took note when CCR's cover of the 1956 rockabilly song[13] "Susie Q" received substantial airplay in the San Francisco Bay Area and on Chicago's WLS-AM.

After their breakthrough, CCR began touring and started work on their second album, Bayou Country (released January 1969), at RCA Studios in Los Angeles.

[13] The album also featured a cover of the rock & roll classic "Good Golly, Miss Molly"[13] and the band's nine-minute live-show closer, "Keep On Chooglin'".

[15] In addition to the low energy crowd, the band also experienced issues with their equipment and lighting, resulting in John vetoing their inclusion in the Woodstock film or soundtrack.

The term "roots rock" had not yet been invented when Creedence came along, but in essence, they defined it, drawing inspiration from the likes of Little Richard, Hank Williams, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, and the artisans of soul at Motown and Stax.

After Woodstock, CCR were busy honing material for a fourth album, Willy and the Poor Boys, their second top 3 LP, released in November 1969.

The album was CCR in standard mode, featuring Fogerty originals and two reworked Lead Belly covers, "Cotton Fields" and "Midnight Special".

The speedy "Travelin' Band", with a strong Little Richard sound, however, bore enough similarities to "Good Golly, Miss Molly" to warrant a lawsuit by the song's publisher; it was eventually settled out of court.

[24] Other cuts on the Cosmo's Factory album included an 11-minute jam of Marvin Gaye’s 1968 cover of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (a minor hit when an edited version was released as a single in 1976), and a nearly note-for-note homage to Roy Orbison's "Ooby Dooby".

[25][page needed] Tom Fogerty decided he had enough and resigned from CCR in early 1971 after the recording of Pendulum, with his departure being made public in February of that year.

In the spring of 1971, John Fogerty, frustrated with his remaining bandmates' constant complaining that they were not allowed to write and produce their own songs,[25][page needed] relented and informed Cook and Clifford that CCR would continue only by adopting a "democratic" approach: each member would now write and perform his own material with each band member contributing three songs apiece to the next album.

Rolling Stone reviewer Jon Landau deemed it "relative to a group's established level of performance, the worst album I have ever heard from a major rock band".

By this point, Fogerty was not only at direct odds with his bandmates but he had also come to see the group's relationship with Fantasy Records as onerous, feeling that Zaentz had reneged on his promise to give the band a better contract.

Despite the relatively poor reception of Mardi Gras and deteriorated relationships among the remaining band members, CCR embarked upon a two-month, 20-date U.S. tour.

Fogerty's explanation for not playing CCR material was that he would have had to pay performance royalties to copyright holder Zaentz, and that it was "too painful" to revisit the music of his past.

While a jury ruled in Fogerty's favor, he did settle a defamation suit filed by Zaentz over the songs "Mr. Greed" and "Zanz Kant Danz".

Bob Dylan and George Harrison (along with Taj Mahal and Jesse Ed Davis) had joined him onstage, admonishing, "If you don't, the whole world's gonna think 'Proud Mary' is Tina Turner's song."

At a 1987 Independence Day benefit concert for Vietnam veterans, Fogerty finally ran through the list of CCR hits, beginning with "Born on the Bayou" and ending with "Proud Mary".

His 1974 solo album Zephyr National was the last to feature the four original CCR band members on the track "Mystic Isle of Avalon", although John recorded his parts separately.

Tom Fogerty died at his home in Scottsdale, Arizona, in September 1990 of an AIDS complication, which he contracted via a tainted blood transfusion he received while undergoing back surgery.

[31] Junior high school friends Doug Clifford and Stu Cook continued to work together following the demise of CCR both as session players and members of the Don Harrison Band.

John's 1997 injunction forced Creedence Clearwater Revisited to temporarily change its name to "Cosmo's Factory", but the courts later ruled in Cook's and Clifford's favor.

[32] Zaentz also used his wealth to produce a number of successful films, including Best Picture Oscar winners One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Amadeus, and The English Patient.

Six years prior, all four members were present on the song "Mystic Aisle Avalon" on Tom's 1974 album Zephyr National, but John recorded his parts separately from everyone else.

[34] In a July 2011 interview with the Calgary Herald, John admitted that he would at least be willing to consider reuniting with Cook and Clifford: Years ago, I looked at people and I was so full of some sort of emotion and I'd say, 'Absolutely not!'

So my position got stated very well in the newspaper, and lo and behold, Wrangler to their credit said, "Wow, even though we made our agreement with the publisher, the owner of the song, we can see now that John Fogerty really hates the idea," so they stopped doing it.