John Fogerty, Creedence Clearwater Revival, wins music rights

John Fogerty may not be a fortunate man, but he might be feeling lucky after this week.

After a 50 year legal battle, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s founding member now owns global publishing rights to the songs.

After Mr Fogerty (77) bought a majority share in the rights of the band’s catalog from Concord Records, which had owned them since 2004.

He wrote, “As of January next year, I own mine again,” on Twitter.

“This is something I had never imagined was possible. After 50 years, my songs are finally mine.

While Mr Fogerty retains rights to his solo music, his majority interest allows him to control – for first time – 65 Creedence Clearwater Revival copyrights including hits such as Bad Moon Rising, Have You Ever SEEN The Rain, Proud Mary, and Fortunate Son.

Together with his older brother Tom Clifford, Doug Clifford, Stu Cook and Stu Cook, the rocker was the founder of the group. He also served as its lead singer, principal songwriter, and lead guitarist.

The California-born group had nine top-10 singles, and five top-10 albums on Billboard charts. They reportedly sold more albums than the Beatles in 1969.

They were disbanded in 1972 and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1996).

However, the dispute that erupted after Saul Zaentz, a late music mogul signed Mr Fogerty as a teenager to Fantasy Records in the mid-1960s has dominated his life for decades.

Fantasy owned the publishing and distribution rights to the group. Fogerty traded insults and lawsuits alongside Zaentz. He claims that Fantasy misled him with poor investments and absorbed his royalties.

Concord bought the label in 2004. Concord quickly increased and reinstated the royalties Mr Fogerty was owed for not receiving them in 25 years.

The musician was recently signed by the company at an undisclosed price. Concord will keep the CCR masters already in its library and will continue to administrate Mr Fogerty’s portion of the catalog for an unknown amount of time.

“I’m the dad.” [of these songs]. “I created them,” said the rocker to Billboard Thursday. They were never meant to be taken away.