Creedence Clearwater Revival was a band originally formed as early as 1959. While their swampy sounds and lyrics about the bayou have long led band’s fans to think they were Southern, they were actually schoolmates from El Cerrito, California — a Bay Area suburb. Such was the vision of lead man John Fogerty. WHen they changed their name to Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1967,they began to see their greatest period of success, including five top-10 albums in the U.S., two of which reached number one on the Billboard charts.
Legal infighting between the bandmates and record label led to the disbandment of CCR in 1972, leading to years of contempt between the members, including John Fogerty and his brother Tom. The fact was, Fogerty had written most of the music himself, so rather than negotiate with the band, he began a solo career, often playing Creedence songs as part of his act. While the band would never re-form, their five-year-run together producedsome of the most revered and oft-covered rock music of the 20th Century, and have been used in films ever since.
While John Fogerty was locked in legal-battles over his original record deal for years, the label was licensing the heck out of their music, which Fogerty never got his fair share of, but enabled the band to be played for generation after generation in movies.
The following are the 20 greatest uses of Creedence Clearwater Revival in films.
20"Long As I Can See the Light" in State of Play
From their number one record,Cosmo’s Factory, came CCR’s memorable track “Long As I Can See the Light”, a ballad with some religious themes in the lyrics and a church-like feeling. While John Fogerty wasn’t making a religious statement, per se, the track depicted a world-weary man, the perfect backing for journalist Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe) inState of Play,when the investigative journalist is pouring over recordsand interviews to get to the bottom of some politically-motivated murders. Creedence has often appeared in political films thanks to its immediate connotation with protests and political strife, on of the band’s greatest legacies.
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19"Fortunate Son" in War Dogs
Maybe Creedence’s most-licensed song, “Fortunate Son” was used a bit ironically inWar Dogs, given that it became an anti-war anthem during the Vietnam War. The protest song was employed for a chase scene in Fallujah, when Efraim (Jonah Hill) and David (Miles Teller) are escaping an armed gang with a cache of weapons in a ramshackle truck. As they make their getaway, an Army platoon comes to the rescue with a helicopter and armored humvees, chasing off the would-be opportunists. Efraim proclaims “God bless Dick Cheney’s America!” to the sound of CCR — sort of a pro and anti-war statement at the same time.
18"Midnight Special" from In the Tall Grass
In the Tall Grasswasa Canadian horror filmbased on a Stephen King novel. While the song may not seem like a fit for a film about supernatural events, “Midnight Special” is somewhat haunting thanks to it being originally written by Leadbelly, a blues man of questionable character who spent his life in and out of prison. Creedence made the song famous when they recorded their version in 1969. Somehow, the song fit perfectly over the film’s credits, capping a scary film with a sort of irony. Stephen King is the most succesfully-adapted author in American history, and Creedence has appeared in many of those films.
17"Fortunate Son" in Logan Lucky
Another famous use of “Fortunate Son” came inLogan Lucky, after Jimmy (Channing Tatum) and Clyde (Adam Driver) spring Joe Bang (Daniel Craig) from prison for the sake of a heist. The song was directly a critique of Vietnam, but the nature of war, with John Fogerty saying forThe Voicethat “[it’s] the old saying about rich men making war and poor men having to fight them.” Given the nature of the haves and have-nots in this film, the song helped to mimic the underdog ethos of the would-be criminals, desperate for cash thanks to personal hardships in the American South.
16"Don’t Look Now" in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
“Don’t Look Now” was a CCR song off their 1969 albumWilly and the Poor Boys, during a frenetic, incredibly prolific time for John Fogerty’s songwriting, which saw the savant musician writing many of his most famous songs during only a two-year span. InJurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the song is used for a bar scene, where Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) tries to convince Owen (Chris Pratt) to help her locate Blue, a brief side of Americana that provides a break from the high-tech atmosphere of the film.
15"Porterville" in Into the Wild
Nothing shouts America like a Creedence song, so “Porterville” provided the perfect backing forInto the Wild, a film based on Jon Krakauer’s best-selling book about Christopher McCandless' (Emile Hirsch) tragic story of attempting to live off the grid after disgust with the status quo. Director Sean Penn has always featured great classic rock songs in his films, and chose a lesser-knows CCR track off their eponymous album. The songs “I Don’t Care” lyric is a perfect fit for this film about transcendentalism.
14"Have You Ever Seen the Rain" in The Longest Yard
ForThe Longest YardAdam Sandler needed a soundtrack that featured musicfrom the era of the original Burt Reynolds film, and Creedence Clearwater Revival was the perfect fit, using “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” for a scene when the prison football players bond during a rainstorm, sliding through a muddy field together in a slow-motion montage. The scene was a brief, dramatic aside for a mostly slapstick comedy. The song peaked at number eight on the Billboard charts after its release in 1971, but has become one of Creedence’s most-licensed tracks since.
13"Fortunate Son" in Suicide Squad
Yet another great usage of “Fortunate Son” came inSuicide Squad, soundtracking Killer Croc’s (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje)origin story, examining his conversion to a cannibalistic metahuman thanks to a condition that gives him reptilian features. The song provided an odd contrast for the scene, but it’s so perfect for montage that it seamlessly slotted into the Arkham epic. Despite some great tracks on the soundtrack, the film couldn’t make back its enormous budget, showing a rare lapse of financial dominance from a DC film.
12"Run Through the Jungle" in Rudy
Better known for its appearance in The Big Lebowski, “Run Through the Jungle” was actually earlier featured inRudy, a college football underdog story that gave Sean Astin his first big role as an adult. Given the All-American Indiana story, CCR again proved to be a perfect match, though the somewhat spooky song is certainly different from the rest of the triumphant soundtrack.
11"Suzie Q" in Elvis and Nixon
Largely forgotten thanks to proximity to Kevin Spacey’s scandals, and being eclipsed by Baz Luhrmann’sElvisa few years after,Elvis and Nixonwas still an interesting look at the relationship between the two men. Michael Shannon wasn’t quite a dead ringer for The King, but still gave a compelling performance, that largely mocked the swollen ego and delusions of these larger-than-life icons. Again, Creedence provides a tinge of Americana when Elvis goes to meet the President to discuss his personal agenda (and Kung-Fu). With “Suzie Q”, you get a highly swung blues track that gives an instant image of the American South, from which Elvis sets off from his Tennessee mansion at Graceland.
