Craft RecordingsCreedence Clearwater Revival‘s final two studio albums, 1970’s Pendulum and 1972’s Mardi Gras, will be reissued as standalone, 180-gram-vinyl LPs on February 12, 2021.
The discs were remastered at half-speed at London’s Abbey Road Studios.
Pendulum, which was released 50 years ago this week, was the follow-up to CCR’s chart-topping Cosmo’s Factory, and peaked at #5 on the Billboard 200. It featured the enduring tune “Have You Ever Seen the Rain,” which was released as a double-sided single with “Hey Tonight” that reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Creedence bassist Stu Cook tells ABC Audio that Pendulum was recorded differently than Cosmo’s Factory, which features several tracks released as singles months before the album came out.
“Pendulum [was] recorded…in 30 days,” Cook explains. “It wasn’t single, single, singles. You know, we recorded it like you’re supposed to record.”
Mardi Gras, CCR’s swan song, was the only album the band made without rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty, who left the group in 1971 because of conflicts with his brother, Creedence frontman John Fogerty. Mardi Gras also was the only CCR album featuring significant songwriting and lead vocal contributions from Cook and drummer Doug Clifford.
The record peaked at #12 on the Billboard 200, and featured CCR’s final hit singles, the Fogerty-penned “Sweet Hitch-Hiker” and “Someday Never Comes,” which reached #6 and #25, respectively, on Hot 100 chart.
Cook admits that the band was in decline while making Mardi Gras, but notes, “There was some good stuff that came out of that…’Someday Never Comes’ is the masterpiece, I think.”
The Pendulum and Mardi Gras reissues can be pre-ordered now, while a limited-edition gold-vinyl version of Pendulum is available exclusively at VinylMePlease.com.
Here’s the Pendulum track list:
Side A
“Pagan Baby”
“Sailor’s Lament”
“Chameleon”
“Have You Ever Seen the Rain”
“(Wish I Could) Hideaway”
Side B
“Born to Move”
“Hey Tonight”
“It’s Just a Thought”
“Molina”
“Rude Awakening #2”
And here’s the Mardi Gras track list:
Side A
“Lookin’ for a Reason”
“Take It Like a Friend”
“Need Someone to Hold”
“Tearin’ Up the Country”
“Someday Never Comes”
Side B
“What Are You Going to Do”
“Sail Away”
“Hello Mary Lou”
“Door to Door”
“Sweet Hitch-Hiker”
By Matt Friedlander
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