Proud Mary was written in 1969 by John Fogerty from the band Creedence Clearwater Revival, otherwise known as CCR. John Fogerty was the lead guitarist and singer for Creedence Clearwater Revival. The others members of the band include Tom Fogerty on rhythm guitar, Stu Cook on bass and Doug Clifford on the drums.
Solomon Burke made a cover of this song and changed the style to have a R&B style. It had elements of gospel and a bit of a country flavor. His version was played on the black radio stations and made the charts, during the same year that the CCR version was also on the recording hits charts.
John Fogerty loved Burke’s version of the song. He thought that Burke captured his original but also added a feeling of black social consciousness to his version. Fogerty said the following about Solomon Burke’s version of Proud Mary
“Two thousand miles away this man had crawled right up inside my head to learn what Proud Mary was all about. Sure it’s great when someone sings your song, but when he understands it, you listen like it was the first time” Wikipedia
Tina Turner did an amazing version of this song in 1970. when she was still performing with her husband Ike Turner. She later was divorced from her abusive husband and went on to become famous in her own right.
There have been many other versions of this song. Personally I love Tina Turner’s solo version of this song the best. I like it better than her version with Ike.
I have sung this song for many years and it has always been a favorite of mine to perform. I sang it in bands in high school and in college. I also performed it solo, when I was playing out in the bars in Fells Point MD. This was quite a few years ago.
GentleKindness 