Coverocktober Song #6: "Proud Mary" by Ike & Tina Turner

Coverocktober Song #6 is one of those covers that, if you were to claim the cover is better than the original, I wouldn't slap you in the face.  And that's saying a lot because I love CCR, and the original was a Top 5 hit for them.  Released in 1969, Creedence Clearwater Revival's original version of "Proud Mary" is an earnest, roots rocky song about a guy who leaves his life "working for the man" in the city to travel on a river boat.  It reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, the first of the band's nine Top 10 hits in the U.S.

A year later, Ike & Tina Turner included their cover of "Proud Mary" on their album Workin' Together.  Ike and Soko Richardson rearranged the song significantly, starting it out with a slow, soulful stroll through the first verse and chorus.  Then all hell breaks loose, and the song rips into a frenzy, with Tina just destroying everything in her path, with some help from backup singers The Ikettes.  The cover went to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #5 on the Billboard R&B singles chart, and it earned Ike and Tina a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Group.

I'm including a live version of the cover because, while hearing the song is great, seeing Tina Turner perform it is even better.  And their bassist might be Bill Hader.