“Bad Moon Rising” by Creedence Clearwater Revival

"Bad Moon Rising" got Creedence Clearwater Revival's Green River rolling in 1969, going out as the lead single a full four months before the album. John Fogerty did practically everything on it: wrote it, arranged it, produced it, sang it and played electric and acoustic guitar, with Tom Fogerty on guitar too, Stu Cook on bass and Doug Clifford on drums. The result is a jaunty, swamp-bottomed shuffle that grins right through that ominous title, all chugging rhythm and a tune you can whistle.

It stalled at number two on the Hot 100 but sat on top of the UK chart for three weeks and became the band's second Gold single, and Rolling Stone put it at 364 on its list of the 500 greatest songs in 2010.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.