(Credits: Far Out / Press)
Sat 17 January 2026 16:00, UK
From single-handedly introducing the world to the infectious sounds of swamp rock, to performing one of the stand-out sets of Woodstock Festival during the height of hippiedom, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s John Fogerty has fostered a career that would strike envy into the hearts of guitarists and songwriters everywhere, but he owes no small part of that success to the inspiration of his own rock and roll heroes.
Despite his enduring position as a hero of 1960s counterculture, at the forefront of that cultural revolution which seemed to render everything that came before it utterly superfluous, it was during Fogerty’s formative years during the late 1950s that he soaked up the vast majority of his musical inspiration – even if the CCR sound that would make Fogerty a star seemed worlds apart from the comparatively archaic realm of rockabilly.
For Fogerty, like countless other young rock obsessives of his generation, the birth of rock and roll introduced him to the sheer power contained within a humble guitar. After all, the guitar has always been the weapon of choice for rock stars across the ages. “From a very early age, guitar was important to me. Back in the ‘50s, there were a lot of instrumental records that featured guitar,” the songwriter once recalled in an interview posted to his Facebook page.
Alongside those instrumental masterpieces, though, the key spark of inspiration that convinced Fogerty to devote his existence to rock and roll came in the form of Elvis Presley. “I don’t know exactly how old I was, I was in a little cafe-grocery store kind of thing up around Santa Rosa,” he recalled. “There was a jukebox and ‘My Baby Left Me’ came on, the Elvis Presley song – well, I didn’t know who it was, at first. ‘What is that?’”
Released in 1956 – which would put Fogerty at around 11 years old – that particular Presley track appeared as a B-side to Wanda Jackson’s ‘I Want You, I Need You, I Love You’, and it had such a colossal impact on Fogerty that CCR recorded a cover of the track for their Cosmo’s Factory album years later.
“I was very excited, I ran over and saw that it was Elvis Presley, and I knew right then, I said, ‘Whatever that is, I want to do that’.”
John Fogerty
‘My Baby Left Me’ isn’t among Presley’s greatest hits, nor is it one of his greatest performances to be pressed onto a jukebox single. For Fogerty, though, it wasn’t the greased-back hair or quivering lip of the singer that gave the song its appeal. Instead, his attention was focused almost solely on the legendary guitar stylings of Scotty Moore.
“It was that special guitar,” he affirmed. “Right along with Elvis Presley, there was a guy standing right beside him named Scotty Moore that I dearly love to this day, the music and the guy.”
Indeed, if you look at the lineage of rock guitarists through the ages, a lot of inspiration is owed to the trailblazing playing style of Mr Moore, which even managed to overshadow Presley’s vocals at certain points.
For the CCR songwriter, Moore was an essential figure of inspiration, largely because he didn’t think he could match Presley. “I think, perhaps in some sort of self-depreciative role, I never really thought of myself as Elvis,” he explained, “but maybe I could be Scotty, you know.”
Throughout his career, the guitarist has continued to try and emulate Moore’s guitar skills, establishing his own distinctive sound in the process.
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