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Sun 20 September 2026 1:00, UK
Picking the best Creedence Clearwater Revival song isn’t an easy task, but Far Out have never backed away from a challenge.
When we decided to rank the ten best tracks ever put together by the 1960s rock band, we had to peel through their run of timeless classics in a bid to piece something cohesive together. Despite the band splitting up decades ago, their songs hold a power that is pretty difficult to dismiss, and tracks that were written to reflect a very specific period of time resonate on this side of the millennia just as much as the other.
Carlos Santana himself said that when he saw Creedence Clearwater Revival play live, he knew he was in the presence of a band that would be included in the history books. “We started opening for Creedence Clearwater in ’67,” he said, “I always loved the power, soulfulness and simplicity in every song he did in Creedence Clearwater. All those songs were mega hits.”
Santana also covered the song that Far Out called CCR’s best ever. Of course, despite the massive discography of classics that the band have, we had to go with their protest anthem ‘Fortunate Son’. It doesn’t matter how much time passes since the original release of this song and the modern age; it continues to be one of the most poignant and powerful anti-war tracks out there.
From the smooth guitar runs in the introduction to John Fogerty’s grainy vocal tone to the catchy chorus, which has been sung in bars and played in movies, everything about the song lines up perfectly. How baffling, then, that out of all the tracks that CCR ever wrote, this is the one that came together pretty smoothly. The song, which has stood the test of time despite these decades rolling on by, was penned within a magical 20 minutes.
The anti-war song had been on the tip of Fogerty’s tongue for some time, to the point that when he eventually decided it was time to write, it flowed very naturally. “When I felt it was about ready to hatch, I went into my bedroom and just sat down to write,” he said, “The whole thing happened in about 20 minutes. That just poured out.”
This is just luck of the draw sometimes. You’d be surprised how many artists, when it comes to their greatest hits, manage to stumble upon a certain melody, chorus, or entire song, within just a matter of moments. Tom Petty once said he wrote ‘Wildflowers’ in a “stream of consciousness.” Paul McCartney woke up from a dream with the tune to ‘Yesterday’ in his head. Jimmy Page improvised the solo on ‘Stairway to Heaven’. If only penning classics came as easily to the rest of us, but then I suppose they wouldn’t really be classics.
Further reading: From The Vault
While the song may have only been written quickly, the message continues to resonate. It was written specifically about the Vietnam War; however, the lyrics seem to keep landing with listeners even in 2026. Fogerty figured that the reason people continue loving the sentiment behind the song is that it attacks a class divide as opposed to just the war itself. The war is used to demonstrate the inequality throughout class-based systems, and that inequality is something that people can’t escape, even in 2026.
“The song speaks more to the unfairness of class than war itself,” he said. “It’s the old saying about rich men making war and poor men having to fight them.”
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