Creedence Clearwater Revival Catalogue Gets Deluxe Box Treatment

Craft Recordings has announced the 30 November release of a deluxe box set comprising the complete seven-album studio catalogue of one of the definitive bands of American music history, Creedence Clearwater Revival. As part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of their legacy, the albums will be presented as 180-gram LPs with replica packaging and as half-speed masters, allowing the utmost audio fidelity.

The LPs will be housed in tip-on jackets that replicate the packaging of the original pressings, and are accompanied by an 80-page book with new liner notes by music journalist Roy Trakin, archival photos and faithful reproductions of CCR ephemera.

The albums in the set represent the entire studio output of a band who changed the course of blues and R&B-flavoured rock music in their short lifespan of 1968-1972. The titles are Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bayou Country, Green River, Willy and the Poor Boys, Cosmo’s Factory, Pendulum and Mardi Gras.

The US sales alone of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees stand at more than 30 million, including 14 top ten hit singles, six platinum-certified albums (two of which reached No. 1 in the US) and one gold album. They played more than 150 tour dates around the world, including a historic headlining spot at Woodstock.

The half-speed mastering process uses high-resolution transfers from the original analog tapes and involves playing back the original audio at half its recorded speed, while the cutting lathe is turned at half the desired playback speed. This technique allows more time to cut a micro-precise groove, allowing more accuracy with frequency extremes and dynamic contrasts.

“I’ve tried to be as authentic as I could, and just make it sound like music,” says Abbey Road Studios’ award-winning engineer Miles Showell, who oversaw the process. “Not over-hyped, not over-processed. Up until now a lot of processing has been done on these recordings, so my approach was to strip them right back and just expose them for what they are — because what they are is great music.”

The 7-LP deluxe box set The Complete Studio Albums is released on 30 November. Scroll down for the full tracklistings and more information, and buy it here.

About Creedence Clearwater Revival (1968)

Liner notes extract: “Released in the summer of 1968, Creedence Clearwater Revival begins with the faint sound of gongs, then the rat-a-tat of Doug ‘Cosmo’ Clifford’s snare drum before John’s snarling take on Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ ‘I Put a Spell on You,’ announcing the arrival of an important new rock ’n’ roll voice.”

Track Listing

Side A:

1. I Put a Spell on You
2. The Working Man
3. Suzie Q

Side B:

1. Ninety Nine (And a Half Won’t Do)
2. Get Down Woman
3. Porterville
4. Gloomy
5. Walk on the Water

About Bayou Country (1969)

Liner notes extract: “Instead of delving into the underground,” Fogerty told Uncut’s Bud Scoppa, “…my Elvis-and-Beatles upbringing came directly into play. And I was able to write songs that would go on Top 40 radio, because that’s what I had wanted to do since I was four. I wanted to make hit singles.”

Track Listing

Side A:

1. Born on the Bayou
2. Bootleg
3. Graveyard Train

Side B:

1. Good Golly Miss Molly
2. Penthouse Pauper
3. Proud Mary
4. Keep on Chooglin’

About Green River (1969)

Liner notes extract: “The album became the band’s first chart-topper, lodging at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for the entire month of October, in between Blind Faith and Abbey Road, fulfilling their ambition to become the American Beatles.”

Track Listing

Side A:

1. Green River
2. Commotion
3. Tombstone Shadow
4. Wrote a Song for Everyone

Side B:

1. Bad Moon Rising
2. Lodi
3. Cross-tie Walker
4. Sinister Purpose
5. The Night Time Is the Right Time

About Willy and the Poor Boys (1969)

Liner notes extract: “It’s a very powerful anti-war message, but even more so, it’s an anti-class-bias message,” Fogerty told Uncut’s Bud Scoppa in 2006. “When I sing it now, it still has teeth.”

Track Listing

Side A:1

1. Down on the Corner
2. It Came Out of the Sky
3. Cotton Fields
4. Poorboy Shuffle
5. Feelin’ Blue

Side B:

1. Fortunate Son
2. Don’t Look Now (It Ain’t You or Me)
3. The Midnight Special
4. Side O’ the Road
5. Effigy

About Cosmo’s Factory (1970)

Liner notes extract: “Cosmo’s Factory represents the apogee of Creedence Clearwater Revival, playing like a greatest hits album despite the fact the songs (and covers) are all appearing on disc for the first time…”

Track Listing

Side A:

1. Ramble Tamble
2. Before You Accuse Me
3. Travelin’ Band
4. Ooby Dooby
5. Lookin’ Out My Back Door
6. Run Through the Jungle

Side B:

1. Up Around the Bend
2. My Baby Left Me
3. Who’ll Stop the Rain
4. I Heard It Through the Grapevine
5. Long As I Can See the Light

About Pendulum (1970)

Liner notes extract: “With Pendulum, the band decided to experiment in the manner of Sgt. Pepper, without any preconceived ideas, which ran against Fogerty’s notions of organisation and control…”

Track Listing

Side A:

1. Pagan Baby
2. Sailor’s Lament
3. Chameleon
4. Have You Ever Seen the Rain?
5. (Wish I Could) Hideaway

Side B:

1. Born to Move
2. Hey Tonight
3. It’s Just a Thought
4. Molina
5. Rude Awakening #2

About Mardi Gras (1972)

Liner notes extract: “…the now-threesome went into the studio in the spring of 1971 to record a new single, “Sweet Hitch-Hiker,” with the B-side a song written and sung by Stu Cook, “Door to Door,” an amiable rockabilly number. “Sweet Hitch-Hiker” would be the band’s last top ten single, reaching No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100.”

Track Listing

Side A:

1. Lookin’ for a Reason
2. Take It Like a Friend
3. Need Someone to Hold
4. Tearin’ Up the Country
5. Someday Never Comes

Side B:

1. What Are You Going to Do
2. Sail Away
3. Hello Mary Lou
4. Door to Door
5. Sweet Hitch-Hiker

Explore our Creedence Clearwater Revival Artist Page.

Format: UK English