vocalists were such greats as Rod Bernard and Johnnie Allen, but possibly the greatest was pint-sized Tommy McLain, whose version of Don Gibson’s “Sweet Dreams” cracked the national charts in 1969, and whose impossibly pure high voice was — and is — an incredible expressive instrument, and his backup recording bands had some of the best veterans of the swamp pop circuit. Listen to him and you’ll hear a possible source for John Fogerty’s singing style.
The Complete Sun Singles
Artist: Carl Perkins
Release Date: 2000
Carl Perkins influenced Creedence because Carl Perkins was one of any true rocker’s influences. Someone who could write a song about something as silly as blue suede shoes and then play it with such passion that it never occurred to you that his life didn’t depend on them was clearly on the right track. His background, too, was perfect: born to dirt-poor Southerners who worked the fields next to their black neighbors, Carl absorbed the country music and blues around him and forged it into a style that was so tight that there was a week when he had the top record on the pop, country, and rhythm and blues charts — “Blue Suede Shoes,” in fact. Even more germane to the Creedence/Fogerty connection was his guitar style, in which country and blues elements came together in absolute simplicity, but thrilling originality. Although it’s not as simple as it might seem: just ask the Beatles, who really had to work at coming close when they covered his stuff.
Arthur
Artist: Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup
Release Date: 1994
Once again, anyone who plays rock