‘Proud Mary’ is a song by American rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival written by John Fogerty. It was released as a single in January 1969 by Fantasy Records and on the band's second studio album, Bayou Country. The song became a major hit in the United States, peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1969, the first of five singles to peak at No. 2 for the group, they have the most #2 songs without ever having a #1.
In the beginning, ‘Proud Mary’ had nothing to do with a riverboat. Instead, John Fogerty envisioned it as the story of a woman who works as a maid for rich people. "She gets off the bus every morning and goes to work and holds their lives together," he explained. "Then she has to go home." It was Stu Cook who first introduced the riverboat aspect of the song. The idea came to him as the group watched the television show Maverick and Stu made the statement, "Hey riverboat, blow your bell." John agreed that the boat seemed to have something to do with the song that had been brewing in his mind for quite some time, waiting to take conscious shape. When he wrote the music, he made the first few chords evoke a riverboat paddlewheel going around. Thus, ‘Proud Mary’ went from being a cleanup lady to a boat.
In a 1969 interview, Fogerty said that he wrote it in the two days after he was discharged from the National Guard. In the liner notes for the 2008 expanded reissue of Bayou Country, Joel Selvin explained that the songs for the album started when Fogerty was in the National Guard, that the riffs for ‘Proud Mary’, ‘Born on the Bayou’, and ‘Keep on Chooglin'’ were conceived by Fogerty at a concert in the Avalon Ballroom, and ‘Proud Mary’ was arranged from parts of different songs, one of which was about a washerwoman named Mary. The line "Left a good job in the city" was written following Fogerty's discharge from the National Guard, and the line "rollin' on the river" was from a movie by Will Rogers.
The Proud Mary, more formally known as the Mary Elizabeth, was a real ship and was based in Memphis, Tennessee. The Proud Mary traveled along the Mississippi River from 1928 to 1978.
This was a #4 hit in the US for Ike & Tina Turner in 1971, and a highlight of their live shows. Tina Turner recalled in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in 1971 how they came to record this on their Workin' Together album: "When we cut the album, we were lacking a few tunes, so we said 'Well, let's just put in a few things that we're doing on stage. And that's how 'Proud Mary' came about. I had loved it when it first came out. We auditioned a girl and she had sung 'Proud Mary.' This is like eight months later, and Ike said, 'You know, I forgot all about that tune.' And I said let's do it, but let's change it. So in the car Ike plays the guitar, we just sort of jam. And we just sort of broke into the black version of it. It was never planned to say, 'Well, let's go to the record shop, and I'd like to record this tune by Aretha Franklin'... it's just that we get it for stage, because we give the people a little bit of us and a little bit of what they hear on the radio every day."
Label – Fantasy
Songwriter – John Fogerty
Producer – John Fogerty
SONG LYRICS
[Verse 1]Left a good job in the city
Workin' for the man every night and day
And I never lost one minute of sleepin'
Worryin' 'bout the way things might have been
[Refrain]
Big wheel keep on turnin'
Proud Mary keep on burnin'
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
[Verse 2]
Cleaned a lot of plates in Memphis
Pumped a lot of 'pane down in New Orleans
But I never saw the good side of the city
'Til I hitched a ride on a river boat queen
[Refrain]
Big wheel keep on turnin'
Proud Mary keep on burnin'
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
[Instrumental break]
1:14 - 1:50
[Refrain]
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
[Verse 3]
If you come down to the river
Bet you gonna find some people who live
You don't have to worry cause you have no money
People on the river are happy to give
[Refrain]
Big wheel keep on turnin'
Proud Mary keep on burnin'
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
[Bridge]
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river