If there's a diehard fan of Creedence Clearwater Revival on your Christmas gift list--who also happens to be a vinyl freak--then here's something to think about.

Tomorrow (November 30), Craft Recordings/Universal Music Canada are releasing Creedence Clearwater Revival: The Studio Album Collection, which is sure to please anyone who gets a warm, fuzzy feeling as soon as that guitar pick gets scraped along the strings of John Fogerty's cranked axe at the beginning of "Run Through the Jungle".

As well as half-speed mastered, 180-gram versions of all seven CCR studio albums--Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bayou Country, Green River, Willy and the Poor Boys, Cosmo's Factory, Pendulum and Mardi Gras--the box set includes an 80-page book featuring archival photos and new liner notes from music journalist Roy Trakin. 

Any CCR fanatics lucky enough to find this deluxe (and pricey) item under the tree on Christmas morning can expect to spend hours trying to figure out which album is the band's very best.

Is it 1969's Green River, which features such deathless tunes as "Bad Moon Rising, "Lodi", and the title track?

Could it be Willy and the Poor Boys, also from '69, home to "Down on the Corner", "Fortunate Son", and "Effigy"?

Or is the ultimate Creedence disc actually 1970's Cosmos Factory, which boast such gems as "Lookin' Out My Back Door", "Up Around the Bend", and "Who'll Stop the Rain?"

I'm goin' with Cosmos Factory, myself.

About Creedence Clearwater Revival (1968)

Liner notes extract: “Released in the summer of 1968, Creedence Clearwater Revival begins with the faint sound of gongs, then the rat-a-tat of Doug “Cosmo” Clifford’s snare drum before John’s snarling take on Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put a Spell on You”, announcing the arrival of an important new rock ’n’ roll voice.”

Side A:

1. I Put a Spell on You
2. The Working Man
3. Suzie Q

Side B:

1. Ninety Nine (And a Half Won’t Do)
2. Get Down Woman
3. Porterville
4. Gloomy
5. Walk on the Water

About Bayou Country (1969)

Liner notes extract: “Instead of delving into the underground,” Fogerty told Uncut’s Bud Scoppa, “…my Elvis-and-Beatles upbringing came directly into play. And I was able to write songs that would go on Top 40 radio, because that’s what I had wanted to do since I was four. I wanted to make hit singles.”

Side A:

1. Born on the Bayou
2. Bootleg
3. Graveyard Train

Side B:

1. Good Golly Miss Molly
2. Penthouse Pauper
3. Proud Mary
4. Keep on Chooglin’

About Green River (1969)

Liner notes extract: “The album became the band’s first chart-topper, lodging at #1 on the Billboard 200 for the entire month of October, in between Blind Faith and Abbey Road, fulfilling their ambition to become the American Beatles.”

Side A:

1. Green River
2. Commotion
3. Tombstone Shadow
4. Wrote a Song for Everyone

Side B:

1. Bad Moon Rising
2. Lodi
3. Cross-tie Walker
4. Sinister Purpose
5. The Night Time Is the Right Time

About Willy and the Poor Boys (1969)

Liner notes extract: “It’s a very powerful anti-war message, but even more so, it’s an anti-class-bias message,” Fogerty told Uncut’s Bud Scoppa in 2006. “When I sing it now, it still has teeth.”

Side A:

1. Down on the Corner
2. It Came Out of the Sky
3. Cotton Fields
4. Poorboy Shuffle
5. Feelin’ Blue

Side B:

1. Fortunate Son
2. Don’t Look Now (It Ain’t You or Me)
3. The Midnight Special
4. Side O’ the Road
5. Effigy

About Cosmo’s Factory (1970)

Liner notes extract: “Cosmo’s Factory represents the apogee of Creedence Clearwater Revival, playing like a greatest hits album despite the fact the songs (and covers) are all appearing on disc for the first time…”

Side A:

1. Ramble Tamble
2. Before You Accuse Me
3. Travelin’ Band
4. Ooby Dooby
5. Lookin’ Out My Back Door
6. Run Through the Jungle

Side B:

1. Up Around the Bend
2. My Baby Left Me
3. Who’ll Stop the Rain
4. I Heard It Through the Grapevine
5. Long As I Can See the Light

About Pendulum (1970)

Liner notes extract: “With Pendulum, the band decided to experiment in the manner
of Sgt. Pepper, without any preconceived ideas, which ran against Fogerty’s notions of organization and control…”

Side A:

1. Pagan Baby
2. Sailor’s Lament
3. Chameleon
4. Have You Ever Seen the Rain?
5. (Wish I Could) Hideaway

Side B:

1. Born to Move
2. Hey Tonight
3. It’s Just a Thought
4. Molina
5. Rude Awakening #2

About Mardi Gras (1972)

Liner notes extract: “…the now-threesome went into the studio in the spring of 1971 to record a new single, “Sweet Hitch-Hiker”, with the B-side a song written and sung by Stu Cook, “Door to Door”, an amiable rockabilly number. “Sweet Hitch-Hiker” would be the band’s last Top 10 single, reaching #6 on the Billboard Hot 100. “

Side A:

1. Lookin’ for a Reason
2. Take It Like a Friend
3. Need Someone to Hold
4. Tearin’ Up the Country
5. Someday Never Comes

Side B:

1. What Are You Going to Do
2. Sail Away
3. Hello Mary Lou
4. Door to Door
5. Sweet Hitch-Hiker