Creedence Clearwater Revival was one of the biggest bands of the 1960’s. They were led by frontman John Fogerty, who was the lead guitarist, singer, and lyricist. The band had some early success; their remake of the 1956 song ‘Suzie Q’ reached #11 nationally. However, they reached their prime in 1969 with the album ‘Bayou Country’. This album produced hits like ‘Proud Mary’ and ‘Born On the Bayou’. Despite all this success, there was a lot of turmoil in the band.
The rest of the band was very irritated by John Fogerty’s lack of business sense. John Fogerty’s older brother, Tom (also a guitarist in the band), wound up leaving the band multiple times, only to be coaxed back into joining the band. Tom Fogerty left for good in 1972, and the rest of the band didn’t search for a replacement. The band officially split up later that year.
While with Creedence Clearwater Revival, the younger Fogerty had signed a massive 14-album deal to Fantasy records. When CCR broke up, they had only made 6 albums. However Fogerty simply refused to work for Fantasy records any longer. The dispute was resolved when Fantasy records bought the rights to all of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s songs. John Fogerty now has to pay a royalty tax every time he performs a CCR song live
John Fogerty went on have a moderately successful solo career while signed with Warner Bros., but his biggest success came in 1985 with the album Centerfield. The song ‘The Old Man Down the Road’ spent 3 weeks at #1 on the billboard charts. This caught the eye of Saul Zaentz, owner of Fantasy Records, who had worked with Fogerty during his CCR years. Zaentz claimed that this song was a copy of the CCR hit ‘Run Through the Jungle’. Fantasy records sued Fogerty for copyrighting his own song, and Zaentz sued Fogerty on accounts of defamation for the songs ‘Zantz Kant Danz’, and ‘Mr. Greed’. The court ruled in favor of Fogerty in the copyright case, but ruled in favor Zaentz on the accounts of defamation.
This case shows just how murky the law can get – it’s absurd that John Fogerty can be sued for infringing on his own music. Fantasy records had a solid case (the songs do have a striking similarity), but the whole case just sounds to ridiculous. The only reason this case hasn’t received more notoriety is because that the court ruled in favour of Fogerty. It is conceivable that they ignored the similarities between the songs and just wanted to avoid controversy.
Although Fogerty is partially to blame (his bad business skills got him into this situation), the court made the right decision to side with Fogerty. If they had sided with Fantasy records, there would have been a massive uproar amongst CCR and Fogerty fans. The courts decision was a smart, calculated one, because, although Fogerty had to pay defamation fees, he didn't have to pay the massive copyrighting suit, and the suit didn't stop him from having a successful career as a solo artist.
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