Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Have You Ever Seen The Rain’ makes it back on Billboard chart
Creedence Clearwater Revival recently experienced another revival through their hit song, “Have You Ever Seen The Rain.”
According to Forbes, Billboard’s Rock Streaming Songs chart — which tracks the top streaming rock songs in the U.S. — included the rock band’s single at No. 24 on the chart’s 25-spot ranking.
The popular track previously climbed as high as No. 11 on the same chart, and it still stands as one of only two of the band’s singles to have cracked into the chart, per Forbes.
“Have You Ever Seen The Rain,” as reported by Forbes, has now spent 104 weeks — exactly two years — on the Billboard chart. For comparison, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s other hit song to make the chart, “Bad Moon Rising,” has only made the list two separate times.
Who is the original singer of ‘Have You Ever Seen the Rain’?
The story all starts back in 1959 with the inception of Creedence Clearwater Revival. According to American Songwriter, brothers John and Tom Fogerty united with school friends Stu Cook and Doug Clifford to create a band called The Blue Velvets — but they later changed it to Creedence Clearwater Revival as a combination of three separate sources.
Creedence Clearwater Revival achieved nationwide attention in the mid-to-late ’60s after performing at Woodstock and on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” per the show’s official website.
The band, as stated in an article by Louder, peaked in demand in 1969-1971, accumulating 10 million sold singles from their popular, rockabilly-rooted discography.
Coming off a successful series of gold and platinum records, John Fogerty, who was the band’s lead member and songwriter, wrote and released “Have You Ever Seen The Rain” in 1970 for the band’s album “Pendulum,” per Extra Chill.
The single, as stated by American Songwriter, became a success for the band, as it climbed up to the eighth ranking on Billboard’s Hot 100 scoreboard.
Although there’s been speculation of political motive in the song’s message, it was actually written as a metaphor for the band’s internal discord.
Extra Chill shared that according to John Fogerty, he wanted to keep holding creative control of the band, yet other bandmates wanted more input. The power struggle was allegedly most adverse between the brothers, as Tom Fogerty left the band shortly after “Pendulum” released in January 1971.
From his autobiography, “Fortunate Son,” John Fogerty proclaimed, “I was feeling, ‘Man, we achieved all our dreams. And you guys are only talking about negative stuff.’ By your own volition, you bring in a huge rain cloud and cause it to rain. On your own perfect dream. That’s the way I saw it. I was watching the band disintegrate right in front of my eyes,” per uDiscoverMusic.
A year later, the band didn’t reach the same level of success with their album “Mardi Gras,” so they separated shortly after, according to Extra Chill.
The song’s later success
“Have You Ever Seen The Rain” has left an impact on the rock world.
According to Extra Chill, various artists have covered the hit song, such as Joan Jett and Johnny Cash, among a multitude of other vocalists.
Roughly 50 years after the band’s rise in popularity, an official music video for the song was published to Creedence Clearwater Revival’s YouTube channel in 2018, which has accumulated over 400 million views on the platform.
Additionally, in December 2020, the Recording Industry Association of America advanced the certification for “Pendulum” as a triple-platinum album, making the song a huge hit in the rock community, per uDiscoverMusic.
