| "Fortunate Son" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Creedence Clearwater Revival | ||||
| from the album Willy and the Poor Boys | ||||
| A-side | Down on the Corner | |||
| Released | September 1969 | |||
| Recorded | 1969 | |||
| Genre | Roots rock | |||
| Length | 2:21 | |||
| Label | Fantasy | |||
| Writer(s) | John Fogerty | |||
| Producer | John Fogerty | |||
| Creedence Clearwater Revival singles chronology | ||||
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"Fortunate Son" is a song by Creedence Clearwater Revival on their album Willy and the Poor Boys in 1969. It was released as a single, together with "Down on the Corner", in September 1969.[1] The title appears only once in the recording, just as the sound fades at the end. This song reached #14 on the United States charts on 22 November 1969, the week before Billboard changed its methodology on double-sided hits. The track and the reverse side, "Down On The Corner", combined to climb to #9 the next week, on the way to peaking at #3 three more weeks later, on 20 December 1969.[2] It won the RIAA Gold Disc award in December 1970.[3] Pitchfork Media placed it at number 17 on its list of "The 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s".[4]
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The song was inspired by David Eisenhower, the grandson of President Dwight David Eisenhower who married Julie Nixon, the daughter of President Richard Nixon, in 1968.[5] John Fogerty told Rolling Stone: "Julie Nixon was hanging around with David Eisenhower, and you just had the feeling that none of these people were going to be involved with the war. In 1968, the majority of the country thought morale was great among the troops, and like eighty percent of them were in favor of the war. But to some of us who were watching closely, we just knew we were headed for trouble." [6]
This song was popular during the Vietnam War and is included in several Vietnam films and video games. It is from the perspective of a man who is being drafted who is not "fortunate" enough to be the son of a Senator or millionaire.
Fogerty performed the song in front of President Bill Clinton, and was broadcast on US TV, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the "America's Millennium" show on December 31, 1999.
Rolling Stone ranked the song #99 on their list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time."
On Fogerty's 2007 album Revival, the song "I Can't Take It No More", which speaks out against the Iraq War, implicitly links the Iraq and Vietnam wars by referring to George W. Bush as a fortunate son.
The song has since been recorded or notably performed by Bob Seger, La Renga, Gordon Downie and the Country of Miracles, Brandi Carlile, Pearl Jam, U2, Sleater-Kinney, Corrosion of Conformity, Cat Power, The Dropkick Murphys, .38 Special, Circle Jerks, Jeff B.R.I.C.K. & The Mortiboys, Minutemen, Kid Rock, W.A.S.P., Todd Snider and Patty Griffin, and Bruce Springsteen. The Screaming Jets recorded a cover of "Fortunate Son" and released it as a B-side to their 1996 single, "Sacrifice". Wyclef Jean's cover of the song was played over the beginning and ending credits of The Manchurian Candidate (2004). Sleater-Kinney also performed a cover of the song, which they dedicated to George W. Bush, during the WedRock benefit concert on April 28, 2004. That version also appeared on the subsequent live album release. Ivan Neville recorded an all-star funk version on the benefit album Our New Orleans following the Katrina-related flooding in 2005. American pop punk band Fenix*TX also included a live version of "Fortunate Son" on their 2005 album Purple Reign in Blood. My Chemical Romance are also known to play a version of "Fortunate Son" in their 2007 Black Parade Tour. Pro surfer Donavon Frankenreiter performs a slow acoustic version of the song on his 2007 EP Recycled Recipes and 5 Amp Blues included it in their set list in October 2008. Todd Snider recorded this song on his 2008 EP Peace Queer. In 2010, Carlos Santana covered the song for his 2010 solo album Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time. This version features Creed frontman Scott Stapp on lead vocals. In 2011, The Ghost Inside covered the song for the soundtrack of the video game Homefront.
The song is used in the introduction sequence of the game Battlefield Vietnam where it was amongst a list of in-game playable tracks. The song was also used during the E3 announcement trailer for Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam[7] and is also the main menu song for the game and plays mid-game in vehicle radios. "Fortunate Son" was also included in the game Call of Duty: Black Ops at the start of the level S.O.G. Its use is an anachronism, as the level S.O.G. takes place during the Battle of Khe Sanh, a year before the song is released. In Homefront, the song is played during the chapter "Golden Gate". A cover of the song was released as DLC for Rock Band in 2007. The master recording by CCR was made available as well in 2010. The song is also playable in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock.
"Fortunate Son" is featured in the film Forrest Gump, and is the introduction song in the scene where Forrest and Bubba are shown flying in a U.S. Army UH-1C Huey Helicopter, to the combat zone, in South Vietnam, c. 1968, in the Vietnam War.
The song also appeared in the film Live Free or Die Hard and in an episode of American Dad! entitled "In Country...Club", during a reenactment of the Vietnam War, when Steve sprays the actors dressed as Vietcong with orange paint. Another film is Tropic Thunder, an action satire film about three actors making a Vietnam War film.
A cover version of the song is played by Lyle Workman at the end of Sons of Anarchy episode 108.[8] It also appeared on Chuck in the third season episode "Chuck Versus the Beard", covered by Jeffster! "Fortunate Son" is used in the film Dale.
A highly edited version was used in a Wrangler commercial because John Fogerty "long ago signed away legal control of his old recordings to Creedence's record label, Fantasy Records."[9][10] In this case, the advertiser eventually stopped using the song, as Fogerty related in a later interview:
Yes, the people that owned Fantasy Records also owned all my early songs, and they would do all kinds of stuff I really hated in a commercial way with my songs. ... Then one day somebody from the L.A. Times actually bothered to call me up and ask me how I felt, and I finally had a chance to talk about it. And I said I'm very much against my song being used to sell pants. ... So my position got stated very well in the newspaper, and lo and behold, Wrangler to their credit said, "Wow, even though we made our agreement with the publisher, the owner of the song, we can see now that John Fogerty really hates the idea", so they stopped doing it.[11]