The Biggest Band in America in 2024 Is … Creedence Clearwater Revival

[Xpensive Wino]

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"There just aren’t any comparable examples. Bruce Springsteen doesn’t have any records this big. Neither do Pink Floyd or Van Halen or the Beach Boys or the Eagles. Any other music franchise this popular has some larger-than-life personality or drama in the brand. To pick the most obvious example, everybody who loves Fleetwood Mac — which means everybody — knows the real-life heartbreak behind the music. You could run down every Rumours track and tell me who’s breaking up with who on which drugs. But Chronicle is just as massive, without any sex or tragedy."

The Biggest Band in America in 2024 Is … Creedence Clearwater Revival

Why Creedence Clearwater Revival are America's biggest band, in the year 2024.

www.rollingstone.com

 

[jb_abides]

Well, I love CCR as the iconic American icon as much as anyone...

But there are 'comparable' examples -- assuming you look at certified sales for greatest hits collections -- as a metric:

'Chronicle' 12x Platinum

-- versus --

Eagles 'Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975)' at 38x Platinum

And that's just keeping to US bands.

 

[Xpensive Wino]

Well, I love CCR as the iconic American icon as much as anyone...

But there are 'comparable' examples -- assuming you look at certified sales for greatest hits collections -- as a metric:

'Chronicle' 12x Platinum

-- versus --

Eagles 'Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975)' at 38x Platinum

And that's just keeping to US bands.

Rob Sheffield says otherwise ...

 

[gmann]

Rob Sheffield says otherwise ...

A writer fm Rolling Stone?

 

[Xpensive Wino]

A writer fm Rolling Stone?

One may assume so. Perhaps he's a "freelance journalist".

Otis explains the source metrics in the video above.

 

[goldtop0]

I love the word 'metric', covers so many areas.
My mind went back to '69 and Bayou Country, earthy riveting music, good stuff

 

[Xpensive Wino]

 

[Hiwatts-n-Gibsons]

​

"There just aren’t any comparable examples. Bruce Springsteen doesn’t have any records this big. Neither do Pink Floyd or Van Halen or the Beach Boys or the Eagles. Any other music franchise this popular has some larger-than-life personality or drama in the brand. To pick the most obvious example, everybody who loves Fleetwood Mac — which means everybody — knows the real-life heartbreak behind the music. You could run down every Rumours track and tell me who’s breaking up with who on which drugs. But Chronicle is just as massive, without any sex or tragedy."

The Biggest Band in America in 2024 Is … Creedence Clearwater Revival

Why Creedence Clearwater Revival are America's biggest band, in the year 2024.

www.rollingstone.com

I love CCR, but saying they don't have any big egos or drama in their history is avoiding reality on an epic scale. There's a reason they split. Not faulting you, just stating the person who wrote that could do to brush up on his CCR history.

 

[Xpensive Wino]

I love CCR, but saying they don't have any big egos or drama in their history is avoiding reality on an epic scale. There's a reason they split. Not faulting you, just stating the person who wrote that could do to brush up on his CCR history.

But ironically, there’s plenty of dramatic lore in the Creedence story, if anyone knew or cared. There’s two brothers hating each other — after big brother Tom Fogerty quit the band, they never reconciled before his death. John was one of the very few rock stars to get drafted in the Vietnam era — he did his time in the Army, waiting out a year of misery, then returned to fight his way back into the Bay Area bar-band scene. None of his peers had a struggle like that to boast about, but it was a cred card he refused to play, even when he was protesting the war in “Fortunate Son.” There’s even the hilarious lawsuit after his 1985 solo hit “The Old Man Down the Road” — it sounded so much like Creedence, his ex-label took him to court, making him the only rock star ever to get sued for plagiarizing himself. He had to take the witness stand with a guitar, to show the jury why his songs sounded like John Fogerty. During cross-examination, he snapped, “What am I supposed to do, get an inoculation?”

Great stories — but only hardcore fans know them, because Fogerty had zero knack for talking about himself. Since the band broke up, he’s never stopped railing at his ex-bandmates, stewing over business injustices he never had much luck convincing anyone else to care about. His 2015 memoir is a barely-readable pity party. Even in their heyday, the group’s interviews were nothing but drab complaints about not getting taken seriously enough. As Cook groused to Rolling Stone, “People know about our music but they don’t know about our heads.”

That hasn’t changed — but it’s never gotten in the way of the music.

The Biggest Band in America in 2024 Is … Creedence Clearwater Revival

Why Creedence Clearwater Revival are America's biggest band, in the year 2024.

www.rollingstone.com

 

[renderit]

Jangely swamp-assed musics!

I love them!

Run thru da jungle!

 

[charliechitlins]

Very few could write, sing and play them like John.
The "American Beatles" moniker fits, but John was all of them bundled into one.

 

[Xpensive Wino]

Very few could write, sing and play them like John.
The "American Beatles" moniker fits, but John was all of them bundled into one.

Didja ever hear the story about Steve Miller & Paul McCartney?

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1969 track from Steve Miller's Brave New World album with Paul McCartney guesting. He was credited under the name Paul Ramon.


Here's the quote from Glyn Johns book (he was the engineer and producer of Steve's "Brave New World" album, and recorded this track: "After my first week back home, Steve decided to come to London to do some mixing with me and hang out for a few days. I had a session booked at Olympic on a Sunday with the Fab Four, and I invited him to come along to meet them. Unfortunately their office had inadvertently told only Paul and Mal Evans about the session. So we found ourselves with a studio full of Beatles instruments and no band. Not to be outdone by the situation, Paul asked Steve if he had a song. Steve replied that he didn't but had an idea for one, and by five o'clock the following morning we had "My Dark Hour" finished. Paul played drums and bass and added the most powerful vocal harmony to the chorus, and Steve sang lead and played guitar. A good time was had by all and the song ended up on "Brave New World".