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"Fortunate Son" is a song by Creedence Clearwater Revival on their album Willy and the Poor Boys in 1969. It was released as a single, together with "Down on the Corner", in September 1969. [1]. This song reached #14 on the United States charts.

John Fogerty says that the song was indirectly inspired by David Eisenhower, the grandson of President Dwight David Eisenhower who married Julie Nixon, the daughter of President Richard Nixon in 1968. (Eisenhower later enlisted in the Navy Reserve.)[2]

This song was popular during the Vietnam War and is included in the film Forrest Gump and in the computer game Battlefield Vietnam (it was also used in the 2007 film Live Free or Die Hard). The song symbolizes the thoughts of a man who is being drafted. This spoke out against the war in Vietnam, but was supportive of the soldiers fighting there. It is sung from the perspective of one of these men, who ends up fighting because he is not a "Senator's son" or a "Fortunate one."

The song has since been recorded or notably performed by Bob Seger (receiving substantial album-oriented rock airplay in 1986), Pearl Jam, U2, Corrosion of Conformity, The Dropkick Murphys, .38 Special, Circle Jerks and Bruce Springsteen (in concert, both on his own over the years and in collaboration with Fogerty during the 2004 Vote for Change shows) among others. Australian band The Screaming Jets recorded a cover of Fortunate Son and released it as a B-side to their 1996 single, "Sacrifice". Wyclef Jean's cover of the song was played over the beginning and ending credits of The Manchurian Candidate (2004). American pop punk band Fenix*TX also included a live version of "Fortunate Son" on their 2005 album Purple Reign in Blood.

Fogerty performed the song in front of President Bill Clinton and a national TV audience on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the "America's Millennium" show on December 31, 1999.

Rolling Stone ranked the song #99 on their list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Recently, the song was used without Fogerty's permission (Galaxy owns the rights) for a Wrangler Jeans ad campaign. This has greatly angered many Creedence fans, as the ad uses only the patriotic-sounding first line of the song ("Some folks are born, made to wave the flag, ooh, they're red, white, and blue") along with stereotypically patriotic footage, inverting the intended meaning of the song.

On Fogerty's new album (revival) he preforms the song "I can't take it no more", which he wrote to be the song that comes after Fortunate Son.

The song is available as downloadable content for the music video game Rock Band.

• The story behind the lyrics and the identity of the "Fortunate Son"