B-side "Commotion" Format 7" 45 RPM Length 2:36 | Released July 1969 (1969-07) Genre Roots rock | |
Recorded Sometime from March to June 1969 at Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco, California | ||
"Green River" is a song by American rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival. The song was written by John Fogerty and was released as a single in July 1969, one month before the album of the same name was released (see 1969 in music).
Contents
Background
The song "Green River" was based on a vacation spot for John Fogerty. In an interview Fogerty gave to Rolling Stone in 2012, Fogerty stated:
What really happened is that I used a setting like New Orleans, but I would actually be talking about thing from my own life. Certainly a song like "Green River" – which you may think would fit seamlessly into the Bayou vibe, but it's actually about the Green River, as I named it – it was actually called Putah Creek by Winters, California. It wasn't called Green River, but in my mind I always sort of called it Green River. All those little anecdotes are part of my childhood, those are things that happened to me actually, I just wrote about them and the audience shifted at the time and place.
Fogerty added that the "actual specific reference, 'Green River,' I got from a soda pop-syrup label... My flavor was called Green River."
Sales and airplay
"Green River" was certified gold (500,000 units sold) by the Recording Industry Association of America on December 13, 1990.
Cover versions
Mary Wilson of The Supremes worked with UK record producer Gus Dudgeon on a cover version in the early 1980s. It remains unreleased. Country band Alabama recorded a cover version of the song that appears on their 1982 album Mountain Music. The Minutemen included a live performance cover of the song on their 1984 EP Tour-Spiel. Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings covered it on their first album, Struttin' Our Stuff.