The first six albums by Creedence Clearwater Revival will be reissued by Fantasy Records (part of Concord Music Group) on September 30th as six individual expanded-edition CDs. The collection marks the 40th anniversary of the band’s debut, with the album Creedence Clearwater Revival followed by one of rock’s most impressive run of releases ever from 1968-70 with Bayou Country, Green River, Willy & the Poor Boys, Cosmo’s Factory, and Pendulum.

The six albums have all been digitally remastered and filled out with B-sides and unreleased studio and live recordings, including a collaboration with Booker T & the MGs. The Digi-Paks recreate each original album package and also feature liner notes by rock music journalists such as Robert Christgau, Ben Fong-Torres, Dave Marsh, Joel Selvin, and Ed Ward.

Originally from El Cerrito, California, CCR featured John Fogerty (chief songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist), Tom Fogerty (guitar), Stu Cook (bass), and Doug Clifford (drums).  The group started out as Tommy Fogerty & the Blue Velvets, and then became The Golliwogs. In 1967, after John Fogerty’s stint in the military, the quartett reunited as Creedence Clearwater Revival and made rock history — a band that was roots rockin’ and Americana decades before those terms were coined. The hits are part of the fabric of great American music: “Born on the Bayou,” “Proud Mary,” “Bad Moon Rising,” “Down on the Corner,” “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” “Travelin’ Band,”  ”Have You Ever Seen the Rain,” and so many more.

Here’s a look at each deluxe reissue CD:

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Includes CCR’s first hit, the Dale Hawkins song “Suzie Q,” plus their killer cover of Screaming Jay Hawkins’s “I Put A Spell On You.” Bonus tracks: “Call it Pretending” (the B-side of the band’s first single), the band’s first recording of a cover of Bo Diddley’s “Before You Accuse Me” (later re-recorded for Cosmo’s Factory), a live version of “Ninety-Nine and a Half” recorded at the Fillmore Auditorium in 1969, and a full-length live version of “Suzie Q.” Liner notes by former Rolling Stone editor Ben Fong-Torres.

Bayou Country - The band’s second album included “Proud Mary,” “Born on the Bayou,” the Little Richard cover “Good Golly Miss Molly,” the seven-minute “Graveyard Train,” and the eight-minute “Keep on Choogling.” Bonus tracks: An alternate take of the album track “Bootleg,” live versions of “Born on the Bayou” and “Proud Mary,” and a psychedelic blues jam recorded live by San Francisco’s KSAN-FM called “Crazy Otto.”  Notes by San Francisco Chronicle pop music editor Joel Selvin.

Green River - Features the title song, “Bad Moon Rising,” and “Lodi,” plus a cover of Ray Charles’s blues standard, “Night Time is the Right Time.” Bonus material - “Broken Spoke Shuffle,” the instrumental track to a song John Fogerty never finished, another unfinished track called “Glory Be,” plus three live tracks: “Bad Moon Rising” from the 1971 Berlin concert, “Green River/Suzie Q” from the 1971 Stockholm show, and “Lodi,” recorded in Hamburg. Liner notes by the activist critic and Rock and Rap Confidential founder Dave Marsh.

Willy & the Poor Boys - For many, one of the definitive Creedence albums, featuring “Fortunate Son,” “Down on the Corner,” and a cover of the traditional folk song, “The Midnight Special.” Bonus tracks include live versions of “Fortunate Son” and “It Came Out of the Sky,” plus an unreleased studio version of “Down on the Corner,” recorded with Booker T & the MGs for a TV special at the band’s Berkeley rehearsal hall.

Cosmo’s Factory - Another classic album, the fourth and also the biggest in a string of five Top 10 albums Creedence released in 1969 and 1970. Includes “Travelin’ Band,” “Lookin’ Out My Back Door,” “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” “Run Through the Jungle,” and the band’s workout cover of Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard it Through the Grapevine,” plus takes on Bo Diddley, Roy Orbison, and Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup. Bonus material: A bare-bones, horns-free take of “Travelin’ Band,” a live version of “Up Around the Bend” from the 1971 European tour, plus an unreleased version of “Born on the Bayou” from the CCR/Booker T & the MGs summit in 1970 at the Cosmo’s Factory studio. Notes by Village Voice music critic Robert Christgau.

Pendulum - While not the band’s finest album, this set still included a number of great songs, such as  “Have You Ever Seen the Rain,” “Hey Tonight,” and “Molina.” Bonus tracks: A live “Hey Tonight” plus “45 Revolutions Per Minute (Parts 1 & 2), an ultra-rare CCR collectible originally packaged in a plain white sleeve in reference to The Beatles’ White Album.  Liner notes by Joel Selvin.

Preview the albums - Creedence Clearwater Revival Audio Streams:

“Fortunate Son” Live in Manchester

http://www.concordmusicgroup.com/audio/qtl/CCR_Fortunate_Son_Live_In_Manchester.qtl

http://www.concordmusicgroup.com/audio/asx/CCR_Fortunate_Son_Live_In_Manchester.asx

“I Put A Spell On You”

http://www.concordmusicgroup.com/audio/qtl/CCR_I_Put_A_Spell_On_You.qtl

http://www.concordmusicgroup.com/audio/asx/CCR_I_Put_A_Spell_On_You.asx

“Travelin Band” Remake Two

http://www.concordmusicgroup.com/audio/qtl/CCR_Travelin_Band_Remake_Two.qtl

http://www.concordmusicgroup.com/audio/asx/CCR_Travelin_Band_Remake_Take.asx

Creedence Clearwater Revival Video Streams:

“Looking Out My Backdoor”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKDZ3D2TPIc

“Heard It Through The Grapevine”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4A8W6RBXVc

“I Put A Spell On You”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnZTj7xGxpY

Creedence Clearwater Revival Official Site:

http://www.concordmusicgroup.com/artists/Creedence-Clearwater-Revival

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