Songoftheday 2/28/14 - Sometimes I think life is just a rodeo, the trick is to ride and make it to the bell...

John Fogerty - "Rock and Roll Girls"
from the album Centerfield (1985)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #20 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 6

Today's Song of the Day is by veteran roots-rocker John Fogerty, who had a big comeback in 1985 with "The Old Man Down The Road", his first top-ten pop hit since his days in Creedence Clearwater Revival. For its follow-up single John released the straight-forward rock ditty "Rock and Roll Girls", written and produced by the artist...

"Rock and Roll Girls" shot up the charts and reached the top-20 on the Hot 100 in April of 1985, while climbing to #5 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock radio chart. It did a little better in Canada, stopping at #16, while across the pond in England the record was a minor hit at #83.

The song would be John's most recent top-40 pop hit; his next single, the title track from the album, almost scraped that level (it'll be an upcoming "robbed hit"). The following year, Fogerty released the darker and more complex Eye Of The Zombie, and while the title track and "Change In The Weather" from that album went to #3 on the rock chart, only the former made the pop list at #81, becoming his last shot there so far.

A decade would go by before another Fogerty solo release. In the meantime Creedence were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and John would finally release his demons about performing his old band's material live. His 1997 album Blue Moon Swamp would send two songs to the rock chart, while even placing a minor country hit with "Southern Streamline". A year later, his live album Premonition (featuring solo and CCR tunes) gave him his latest hit on the rock chart with the title track (#19). While he hasn't been seen on pop radio, Fogerty returned in 2004 with three excellent records so far, with his most recent "rock songbook"-style album Wrote A Song For Everyone coming in at #3 on the albums chart in 2013.

For this song, the opening line is everything.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


Here's John from his London concert in 2008...

Up tomorrow: A Philly legend (don't call her a diva) gets a makeover.