The Last Hit Song Creedence Clearwater Revival Released Before Imploding

Everything must come to an end, even a run of best-selling singles by an extraordinarily popular band. In October 1972, Creedence Clearwater Revival split up for good due to internal and external turmoil, and just after they issued their final single while still a unit. In the summer of 1972, "Someday Never Comes" became a Top 30 hit, the last before they announced their breakup.

A foursome led by John Fogerty, Creedence Clearwater Revival were the progenitors of swamp rock, an inspiration for Southern rock, and a band that helped invent country rock. They saw remarkable success during their time together, and placed 15 singles on the Hot 100 over a mere four years. And yet, these rock legends racked up zero No. 1 hits. Creedence Clearwater Revival almost never missed the Top 40, such was the level of their popularity between 1968 and 1972, but the classic rock band narrowly missed the No. 1 spot so many times they set a record for peaking at No. 2. 

Their final hit wouldn't contend for the No. 1 spot, but it also easily made the Top 40, landing at a respectable No. 25. "Someday Never Comes" would instead make music history in a different way, as the final Creedence Clearwater Revival hit before the band broke apart.

Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) wrapped things up in 1972, when they were still near the top of their game. "Someday Never Comes" arrived in late spring of '72, CCR's first release since "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" and "Sweet Hitch-Hiker" both made the Top 10 in 1971. The performance of "Someday Never Comes" wasn't quite up to par, peaking at No. 25, but was still a major hit, even if the chart slippage indicated that Creedence Clearwater Revival might be on the way out. 

The song's title implies themes of letting go or dealing with an untenable situation, but CCR leader John Fogerty didn't write it about the imminent breakup of his band, but rather the end of his marriage to Martha Paiz. "It was written right out of my gut, for better or for worse. I was really pining over our children," he wrote in "Fortunate Son: My Life, My Music." "I had been in a family where the parents had divorced and I really took that hard. Now here I was, a grown man, doing the same thing to my children. That just seemed really sad."

Although included on CCR's "Chronicle – The 20 Greatest Hits," "Someday Never Comes" isn't among the group's best-remembered or most-streamed songs. However, Fogerty remained proud enough of it to re-record the song with the band Dawes for his 2013 collaborations and remakes album, "Wrote a Song for Everyone."