Creedence Clearwater Revival – I Heard It Through The Grapevine ….Under The Covers Week

Creedence cut through his song and stripped it bare with their version. I love Marvin Gaye’s version of this song but Creedence spun it into a garage band’s dream. I really like the steady drums that keep it tethered to earth. CCR’s drummer Doug Clifford played off of John Fogerty’s rhythm and it created the atmosphere of the song.

California Rasins - Heard It Through The Grapevine

This is embarrassing but this song really hit my radar through constant commercials in 1987. It was used in California Raisin commercials that played, and played, and played more. When I would go to Hardees for lunch…they would give me a plastic figure of one of the raisins. Yea…I collected them. Former drummer of the Jimi Hendrix Band of Gypsies, Buddy Miles, sang lead in those commercials.

Creedence’s album version was a whopping (I love using that word) 11-minute song. This was a change from their other compact songs. This of course was not an original. It was written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong. Strong came up with the idea and asked Motown writers Holland-Dozier-Holland to work on it with him. They refused to credit another writer, so Strong took it to Whitfield, who helped put it together…so it was credited to Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong.

In December 1975, CCR’s label Fantasy Records re-released the song as a single, which peaked at #43 on the Billboard 100 and #76 in Canada. This release came in the middle of some heated legal battles between the band and the label, which resulted in John Fogerty taking a 10-year break from making music. The song was edited down to a more reasonable length for radio.

The song was originally on their Cosmo’s Factory album released in 1970 which is possibly their best album.

Below….the first is one of the many commercials, the second was the single version, and the third is the album’s 11-minute version. 

I Heard It Through The Grapevine

Ooh-ooh, bet you’re wondering how I knew
‘Bout your plan to make me blue
With some other guy that you knew before?
Between the two of us guys, you know I love you more
Took me by surprise, I must say, when I found out yesterday

Ooh-ooh, I heard it through the grapevine
Not much longer would you be mine
Ooh-ooh, I heard it through the grapevine
And I’m just about to lose my mind
Honey, honey yeah

You know that a man ain’t supposed to cry
But these tears I can’t hold inside
Losing you would end my life, you see
‘Cause you mean that much to me
You could’ve told me yourself that you found someone else
Instead

I heard it through the grapevine
Not much longer would you be mine
Ooh-ooh, I heard it through the grapevine
And I’m just about to lose my mind
Honey, honey yeah

People say “You hear from what you see
Not, not, not from what you hear.”
I can’t help but being confused
If it’s true, won’t you tell me dear?
Do you plan to let me go
For the other guy that you knew before?

Ooh-ooh, I heard it through the grapevine
Not much longer would you be mine
Ooh-ooh, I heard it through the grapevine
And I’m just about to lose my mind
Honey, honey yeah

Ooh-ooh, I heard it through the grapevine
Not much longer would you be mine
Ooh-ooh, I heard it through the grapevine
And I’m just about to lose my mind
Ooh-ooh, I heard it through the grapevine
Not much longer would you be mine
Aah-aah, I heard it through the grapevine
And I’m just about to lose my mind
Honey, honey yeah

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

44 thoughts on “Creedence Clearwater Revival – I Heard It Through The Grapevine ….Under The Covers Week”

    1. I have to say…I love Marvin Gayes just as much but the versions are apples and oranges… Great soul song and this is a great soul-garage song…those rasins… were everywhere!

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    1. I like John’s voice and intensity in this one. He always did a song like it was the last one.
      Those damn raisins first were cute then the marketing went overboard.

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  8. Some songs don’t need to be covered. This is one of them. Not that there’s anything wrong with the CCR cover but you can’t improve on Marvin Gaye. I’ll admit I never gave CCR the chance they deserved. It just seemed that an East Bay suburban band trying to pretend they were from the bayou just never stuck for me.

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    1. Fogerty had a small window where he was on fire with songs. Yea I can’t compare this with Gayes or the Gladys Knight version…it’s basically a garage bands version which has it’s charm…but yea I love Marvin Gayes version.

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  10. I marginally prefer the CCR version, only because it uses that 11 minutes to build the brooding intense barely restrained hurt and angry feel. Well, thats how it sounds to me, whereas Marvins sounds more resigned. Yes, apples, oranges, raisins, sultanas, either version – pun time- hits the sweet spot.

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      2. Oh yea…I love that one as well. They also did a great version of the Ray Charles song Night Time Is The Right Time….and of course Midnight Special. They knew how to pick them and play them.

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  13. I’d totally forgotten about the singing raisins. I’m sure I had at least one of the Hardees plastic figurines, too. That’s very cool about the singer. I had no idea who the actual musicians were. As for the CCR version, I think I ‘knew’ that one before the Marvin Gaye version, so I thought the cover was the original. I like both versions.

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    1. That is me also…I think a lot of commenters thought I was saying this one is the best…no I like all versions but I lean toward Creedence because it’s more in my wheelhouse. I did love those raisins….great marketing.

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  14. Marvin Gaye is one of my all-time vocalists and I love his version of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” but that CCR rendition is absolute killer in all of its whopping 11 minutes! Perhaps not surprisingly, I had not known about the fun TV commercial!

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    1. Yes…he would have done great on this!
      I believe the commentators thought I was saying this is the superior version…heck I like Marvin Gayes also… It’s hard to do this one wrong.

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  19. Decent cover of a totally perfect original. It came out in the UK in 1976, so I associate with that time snd thinking it was great to have CCR back after being away 5 years. I dont think I realised they were long gone till Status Quo had a massive hit with Rockin All Over The World and John Fogerty’s original got some mentions…

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