Elton John's Cotton Fields - 16 Legendary Covers from 1969/70

I’m currently listening to Cotton Fields - 16 Legendary Covers from 1969/70 by Elton John.  Apparently, it was once a big thing for sort of unknown artists to record cover versions of hit songs.  I don’t know all that much about Elton John, but I think this album (or at least the songs on this album - I think they were all released as singles and put together as an album only recently) comes between his doing session work and becoming famous in his own right.

In any case, what I found interesting is how well-represented Creedence Clearwater Revival is.  This album includes versions of “Travellin’ Band” and “Up around the Bend” along with a version of Leadbelly’s “Cotton Fields,” which was also recorded by CCR.  These versions are actually pretty good covers, but their inclusion is still sort of weird.  I don’t know if Elton John got to choose which songs he did covers of (there might just be a lot of CCR covers because CCR were popular then), but the sort of songs that Elton John later did doesn’t really bear any resemblance to the sort of songs that CCR did.