"Who'll Stop the Rain" is a song written by John Fogerty and originally recorded by Creedence Clearwater Revival for their 1970 album Cosmo's Factory.
All three verses allude to a sense of unending malaise, pondered by "good men through the ages", "Five Year Plans and New Deals/wrapped in golden chains", and the Woodstock generation.
[4] Interpreting the song in its time period (1970), and the resigned but somewhat angry feeling of the song, many see "Who'll Stop the Rain" as a thinly veiled protest against the Vietnam War, with the final verse lyrics and its references to music, large crowds, rain, and crowds trying to keep warm being about the band's experience at the Woodstock Festival in August 1969.
"[7] Ultimate Classic Rock critic Bryan Wawzenek rated the lyrics of "Who'll Stop the Rain" as Fogerty's 3rd greatest, saying "It appears that he feels the efforts to solve widespread maladies are futile, whether it’s the intelligentsia, politicians or the Woodstock generation who are doing the fixing.
[9] When Creedence Clearwater Revival was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, Springsteen performed the song with John Fogerty.
The song has also been covered by Rudy Rotta, Rod Stewart, Rise Against, Courtney Jaye, The Ventures, and Vince Neil and was included on John Fogerty's 1998 live CD/DVD Premonition.
Usually the song had guitarist Sean O'Hagan performing vocals on it, but regular singer Cathal Coughlan sang on the 1985 version.
Garth Brooks recorded the song for the 2013 The Melting Pot album in the "Blame It All on My Roots: Five Decades of Influences" compilation.
Both the original song and a softer, slower cover version sung by Courtney Jaye are included in the soundtrack of December Boys.
In 1990 it was also used in a third-season episode of Tour Of Duty, a TV action-drama series that followed the fortunes of a U.S. Army platoon during the Vietnam War.
In 2014, the song’s first verse and chorus were sung (a cappella) by guest star (and country music singer/songwriter) Dwight Yoakam in episode 3 in season 2 of the CBS tv series, “Under the Dome”.
[11] Fogerty objected to what he regarded as a misuse of his music in an NPR interview: Folks will remember Forrest Gump and that was a great movie, but they don't remember all the really poor movies that Fantasy Records stuck Creedence music into: car commercials, tire commercials.