Bad Moon Rising
Appearance
"Bad Moon Rising" | |
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Song |
"Bad Moon Rising" is a 1969 song by Creedence Clearwater Revival, written by John Fogerty. It was the lead single from their album Green River and the group’s breakthrough hit, reaching #2 on the Billboard hot 100 singles chart and #1 on the UK singles chart for three weeks in September 1969.
The lyrics utilize images of apocalyptic weather conditions.
A common mondegreen of the last line is "There's a bathroom on the right". The correct line is "There's a bad moon on the rise". Fogerty himself has been known to occasionally substitute the "bathroom" version of the lyric as a joke during his live shows, including on his 1998 live album Premonition.
In pop culture
- It was one of many "moon"-titled songs (along with Van Morrison's "Moondance" and "Blue Moon") to feature on the soundtrack to An American Werewolf in London.
- It was featured on the soundtrack of Sweet Home Alabama.
- The season one finale of Supernatural featured the song playing on the radio of the characters' '67 Impala just as a semi driven by a possessed man hits them and nearly totals the car.
- The season three finale of Las Vegas features the song in the opening minutes.
- Ann Wilson, lead singer of Heart, recorded a cover version of this song for her 2007 solo release Hope & Glory with country music singer Gretchen Wilson.
- Other artists, such as Rolf Harris, Lagwagon, Social Distortion, Rasputina, Rancid, The Reels, and Steel Train have also covered the song.
- The song was sung by Homer Simpson in an episode of The Simpsons when Marge asked him to perform CPR.
- An innovative version appears on an album (COMD2009 On The Rise) that was released in 1986 by the Scottish traditional music group, The Battlefield Band (the group has a tradition of ending their first set with one or another of Creedence Clearwater Revival's hit songs). The first half of track 6 comprises an instrumental version of John Fogerty's Bad Moon Rising presented in a unique fashion (their version is usually introduced to live audiences as "a surfing song from the Outer Hebrides"), whilst the second half of track 6 comprises "The Rising Moon Reel", written by their piper, Dougie Pincock, which is a stirring reel.
- Sportscaster Chris Berman gave the nickname to former NFL receiver Andre Rison, "Andre 'Bad Moon' Rison".
- There is an episode of the TV show The West Wing titled "Bad Moon Rising."
- There is an episode of the TV show Everybody Loves Raymond titled "Bad Moon Rising."
- Manchester United fans have a song called 'Stretford End Rising' based on the song.
- Rolf Harris covered the song. His version appears on the albums "Can you tell what it is yet", "Rolf Rules OK?" and."King Rolf".
- Rasputina covered this song and their version can be found on the album "The Lost & Found".
- In Stephen King's book The Shining the character Jack turns on the radio to this song. Some take it as foreshadowing of future events at the Overlook Hotel