1969 Song of the Day is Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival. I am not sure if CCR has one signature song- Proud Mary would certainly be one- and the other could very well be Bad Moon Rising. My favorite is Fortunate Son. Lets just say they had a lot of great singles. Bad Moon Rising reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in June 1969- CCR had the worst luck as far as not reaching that #1 slot – they had a record 5 singles reach #2 without advancing to the top spot. Bad Moon Rising was written like every other great CCR song by John Fogerty who in the late 60’s- early 70’s couldn’t miss. The song like most CCR songs is rather short at 2:21. Fogerty wrote “Bad Moon Rising” after watching The Devil and Daniel Webster. Fogerty has said that he wrote the song about ‘the apocalypse that was going to be visited upon us.” Bad Moon Rising was the lead single from the Green River album- the b-side was also a superb song- Lodi. Bad Moon Rising will have to be on my Top 40 of 1969 list at the end of the year. No question.
Rolling Stone magazine ranked it #364 on their 500 Greatest Songs Ever list- which is too low- it deserves a higher ranking I do believe. The song has been covered by a number of artists- most notably by The Killer Jerry Lee Lewis both in 1973 and with John Fogerty on Lewi’s 2010 album ‘Mean Old Man.”
slicethelife 
I’m going to see John Fogerty in concert this summer. $150 a ticket, but I consider it money well spent!!
I am sure you will enjoy it. I saw him 20 plus years ago and it was a great concert. It will be worth the money I believe!
I saw John last year. You’re in for a treat!
I caught him during his tour with ZZ Top. While I like ZZ Top’s music, especially their early stuff, their gig came across as pretty routine. Fogerty on the other hand visibly had a great time performing. And he’s still bringing it!
That summer I turned 13 and I was roaming the amusement park with my crew, riding the Ferris wheel with Bad Moon Rising blaring from the PA speaker. It spoke to the new teenage angst rising in us that we thought was part of being cool. Great tune.
Glorious. You’ll see I’ve recently written about the song on The Immortal Jukebox.
Regards Thom
Yep saw it. Maybe our efforts will get it back on the charts!!!
Hi Hans, We’ve always liked CCR and The Killer too but didn’t know of his recording of this song. Thanks for the heads up.
I agree. That’s far too low a ranking on the Rolling Stone list.
“Bad Moon Rising” is a great tune I’ve always dug. CCR also had many other terrific songs. If I could only select one, I’d go with “Have You Ever Seen The Rain.” Fogerty was a great songwriter.
I like the mondegreen “There’s a bathroom on the right”.
I was going to comment about that very thing…