You know, every now and then

I think you might like to hear something from us

Nice and easy but there’s just one thing

You see, we never ever do nothing nice and easy

We always do it nice and rough

So we’re going to take the beginning of this song

And do it easy

Then we’re going to do the finish rough

This is the way we do ‘Proud Mary’

And we’re rolling, rolling, rolling on the river

Listen to the story now…

So begins the song Proud Mary by Ike and Tina Turner. The original Proud Mary was written by John Fogerty and released by Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1969. While the original recording is great, this may be one of the few cases where a cover version exceeds the original in my humble opinion.

There is something about the rawness of Tina Turner’s vocals, and the shift from the slow and easy pace to doing it “rough” when all hell breaks loose. 

Before there was Whitney or Madonna or Beyonce or Adele or Ga Ga or something called Cardi B (Ugh doesn’t belong in the same sentence and is a non-name if there ever was one), there was Tina. 

If you have never heard this song, now is a good time to give it a spin. Here is a great live version.