Creedence Clearwater Revival – Cotton Fields

The first time I heard this song I loved it. Many people have covered it but I know it primarily through CCR. Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Lead Belly, wrote this song and recorded it in 1940. Back when I was playing in a band…around one am, a couple of hours before closing we would do this song. People would be singing along with us. 

Some bands and artists seem to cross genres and CCR is one of those bands. Yes, I’ve met people who didn’t love them but most like something they do. I’ve met metal heads, hard rock fans, country, bluegrass, pop, and rock fans who like them. Most can’t believe they came from California and not the swamps of Louisana. They looked like blue-collar workers going to work every day…and by their music…they were. 

I visited secondhandsongs.com and found that this song has 187 versions of it. It’s been covered by Harry Belafonte, Odetta, Bill Monroe, Buck Owens, The Staple Singers, The Beach Boys, Van Morrison, and so many more. 

Creedence covered it on the Willy and the Poor Boys album released in 1969. It was not released as a single in America but it peaked at #1 in Mexico in 1970. The album had the well-known hits Fortunate Son, Down On The Corner, The Midnight Special, and the fan favorite It Came Out of the Sky. The album peaked at #3 on the Billboard Album Charts, #2 in Canada, and #10 in the UK.

Creedence had 18 songs in the top 100 and 9 top 10 hits yet no number 1’s in the Billboard 100 until Have You Ever Seen The Rain in 2021!

Cotton Fields

When I was a little bitty babyMy mama would rock me in the cradleIn them old cotton fields back home

It was down in LouisianaJust about a mile from TexarkanaIn them old cotton fields back home

Oh, when them cotton bolls get rottenYou can’t pick very much cottonIn them old cotton fields back home

It was down in LouisianaJust about a mile from TexarkanaIn them old cotton fields back home

When I was a little bitty babyMy mama would rock me in the cradleIn them old cotton fields back home

It was down in LouisianaJust about a mile from TexarkanaIn them old cotton fields back home

Oh, when them cotton bolls get rottenYou can’t pick very much cottonIn them old cotton fields back home

It was down in LouisianaJust about a mile from TexarkanaIn them old cotton fields back home

When I was a little bitty babyMy mama would rock me in the cradleIn them old cotton fields back home

It was down in LouisianaJust about a mile from TexarkanaIn them old cotton fields back home

In them old cotton fields back home

…

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, 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. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

29 thoughts on “Creedence Clearwater Revival – Cotton Fields”

  2. Pingback: Creedence Clearwater Revival – Cotton Fields – MobsterTiger

    2. the BB version was the first one I recall hearing ‘properly’ though I heard an older hokier version on some Country/Oldies station, back when there weren’t really Oldies stations per se. Really just an older nostalgic DJ playing what he wanted.

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  6. I was in Kindergarten & 1st & 2nd grade but I do remember how many hits that CCR had in that 4 year period. Only 3 Dog Night had more hits then…still love listening to them. My personal favorite is their version of ‘I Put A Spell on You’.

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    1. I do like this one and Suzi Q and I Put a Spell On You…I thought they wrote this for the longest because it matches Fogerty’s style.

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  9. Yup this song helped snk the country hook into CB. A lot of the music I listen to is colored by the “twang”. I’d get up and sing this baby any chance I got. I had to change “cotton” to “gopher” for my personal connection.

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    1. Hey whatever makes it personal for you! They turned it into a CCR song with their style…it was great. I remember us all singing it together CB…it was our best harmonzing song….we would stop the music in the middle and do an a capella chorus and verse until the last verse and the music would kick back in. The dynamics were great…if I say so myself. Sorry man…too many glory days as one dude once said.

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    1. That is one of my favorite CCR songs. It Came Out of the Sky should be up there with Who’ll Stop The Rain for me…very witty song and I love the name dropping. This one…I never heard the Beach Boys version until I wrote this before I left on the trip!

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