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50 years ago this week, on October 16th, 1972, Creedence Clearwater Revival announced their breakup.
Though drummer Doug "Cosmo" Clifford has told us there had been some rifts over the years, the three final nails in the coffin were John Fogerty's old brother Tom 's departure the year before; John's managing the band, despite not having gone to college or being business savvy; and the decision to allow Clifford and bassist Stu Cook to write and sing songs on their seventh, final album, 1972's Mardi Gras.
Despite poor reviews, Mardi Gras peaked at number-12 on the Billboard Hot 100, went gold and produced two Top 40 singles -- "Sweet Hitch-Hiker" and "Someday Never Comes," both Fogerty songs.
In 1976, Fogerty told Rolling Stone, "I figured that Creedence made six albums. Let me count...the first one, Bayou Country, Green River, Willy and the Poor Boys, Cosmo's Factory, Pendulum... Yeah, six. I wouldn’t even count Mardi Gras and neither would anybody else. I had no control over anything after that. The rest is horse manure. Baloney."
Though CCR never recorded again, they did come together for two private performances -- at Tom Fogerty's wedding on October 19th, 1980, and at their 20th El Cerrito High School reunion in 1983, but as their original incarnation, The Blue Velvets.
What followed were numerous lawsuits that drove a wedge between Fogerty and his rhythm section, so much so that when the band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, Fogerty refused to play with Cook and Clifford, who would eventually go on to form Creedence Clearwater Revisited.
Although legal tensions have quieted and Fogerty said in 2011 that he was open to a reunion, it never materialized.
They recently released a new archival album, Creedence Clearwater Revival at the Royal Albert Hall, and the accompanying Netflix documentary Travelin’ Band: Creedence Clearwater Revival at the Royal Albert Hall, narrated by actor Jeff Bridges.
Fogerty continues to record and perform, and Cook and Clifford, who has Parkinson's, have retired Revisited. Tom Fogerty died in 1990 from AIDS following a blood transfusion he received while undergoing back surgery.
Source: Classic Rock History and Premiere