My Top 1000 Songs #943: Have You Ever Seen The Rain

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

Notwithstanding that truly epic run of 1968-1970 hit singles, I've never been a huge Creedence fan. Probably a combination of classic radio omnipresence during my formative years, and my ambivalence about John Fogerty's voice, but they tend to be a band whose hits I'll throw onto playlists when I'm entertaining, but whose albums I have pretty much zero interest in listening to. 

Still, I've got a soft spot for their two big rain songs, both "Who'll Stop The Rain" (from 1970's Cosmo's Factory) and "Have You Ever Seen The Rain" (from Pendulum, later that same year). Frankly, I get them a little mixed up, finding myself singing the lyrics of one to the music of the other. Which is ok, because they're both pretty much equally great, though the jangle & bass intro of the latter gives it a slight edge for me. (Plus, a few great covers over the years have kept it a little fresher.)

Fogerty live, 2010:

Minutemen cover:

Joan Jett cover:

Ramones cover: