Sweet Hitch-Hiker

Released as a single in July 1971 and later placed on Mardi Gras, it reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, their ninth and final top-10 hit, and No. 36 in the UK. It was the first single recorded after Tom Fogerty left. The song tells of a motorcyclist who crashes after being distracted by an attractive blonde hitch-hiker. The line about making music at the Greasy King refers to a hamburger stand in the band's hometown, El Cerrito. The biographer Hank Bordowitz speculated that the song reflected Fogerty's new freedom after separating from his wife, and called it a classic John Fogerty stomper.

The B-side was Cook's Door to Door, a product of the democratic approach adopted after Tom's departure, in which each member wrote and sang his own material. Fogerty wrote in his autobiography that the results were underwhelming. After his earlier publishing deal with Fantasy expired, this was the first of only two CCR singles whose publishing he owned, a fact he reflected on bitterly. Michael Oldfield of Melody Maker, reviewing Mardi Gras, called it the only cut that sounded like Creedence.