Bad Moon Rising
song written and composed by John Fogerty, originally recorded by Creedence Clearwater Revival and released in 1969
"Bad Moon Rising" is a song written by John Fogerty and performed by Creedence Clearwater Revival. It was the lead single from their album Green River and was released on April 16, 1969, four months before the album. The song peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on June 28, 1969, and reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart for three weeks in September of that year. It was CCR's second Gold single.
In 2010, Rolling Stone ranked it No. 364 on its "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list.
On John Fogerty's 2013 album Wrote a Song for Everyone, the song is included featuring the Zac Brown Band.
Composition
"Bad Moon Rising" uses weather imagery to make the point that something bad is lurking "out there."
Fogerty reportedly wrote the song after watching the 1941 film The Devil and Daniel Webster.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Bad Moon Rising” is song written and composed by John Fogerty, originally recorded by Creedence Clearwater Revival and released in 1969. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Moon, Rising and song, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “song written and composed by John Fogerty, originally recorded by Creedence Clearwater Revival and released in 1969” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2608289. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1969, 2010, 2013 and 1941.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Bad Moon Rising”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Bad Moon Rising primary sources, Bad Moon Rising archive and Moon research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Bad Moon Rising” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.