“My Toot Toot” is pure American joy in motion—John Fogerty tipping his hat to Louisiana zydeco and reminding us that a good-time spirit is worth defending.
John Fogerty’s take on “My Toot Toot” has an unusually “late-blooming” life. He recorded it in the mid-1980s as a non-LP B-side, crediting it to John Fogerty with Rockin’ Sidney Simien—with Sidney’s accordion right there in the mix—on the 1986 single “Change in the Weather.” For years, it lived in that half-mythic space where collectors and diehards whisper about great tracks that never quite found an album home. Then, at last, it surfaced officially as one of two bonus cuts on the Centerfield 25th Anniversary Edition, released June 29, 2010.
That reissue context matters, because Centerfield is one of Fogerty’s most symbolic albums: released January 14, 1985, it was his first studio album in nine years and it went all the way to No. 1 on the Billboard 200—a return that sounded like doors reopening and old engines roaring back to life. And yet “My Toot Toot” wasn’t part of that original 1985 statement; it arrived later, like a forgotten postcard slipped between the pages of a well-loved book.
To appreciate why Fogerty chose it at all, you have to go back to where the song was born. “My Toot-Toot” was written by Sidney Simien—known to the world as Rockin’ Sidney—and it became a breakthrough zydeco smash in 1985, one that crossed lines that weren’t supposed to be crossed. Epic’s national push helped it become a historic outlier: a zydeco record that cracked mainstream country radio, peaking at No. 19 on Billboard Hot Country Songs, and it later won the 1986 Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording. This wasn’t novelty for novelty’s sake—it was a regional sound stepping into brighter light without losing its accent.
Fogerty’s version carries that same grin, but with his own kind of road-dust and muscle. Even on paper, the credits tell a story of respect rather than appropriation: the 2010 reissue notes the track is a cover of Rockin’ Sidney Simien’s zydeco hit and specifies that Fogerty’s recording features Sidney himself on accordion. That detail transforms the cover into something warmer: not “borrowing,” but inviting the original voice into the room. It’s the sound of American roots music doing what it does best—passing a melody hand to hand, without breaking it.
And then there’s the meaning, which is sneakier than it first appears. On the surface, “My Toot Toot” is the definition of good-time mischief: a playful warning, a dance-floor chant, a wink you can hear. But underneath the humor is a small declaration of selfhood. Don’t mess with what’s mine. Don’t trample the small, personal joys that keep me upright. In a world that can flatten people—work, worry, loss, routine—this song insists that delight is not childish. It’s necessary.
That insistence lands differently when sung by John Fogerty—a songwriter often associated with sharper edges: class anger, political frustration, the hard truths of American life. So when he throws open the doors to zydeco exuberance, it feels like more than a stylistic detour. It feels like a reminder that survival isn’t only grit. Sometimes it’s rhythm. Sometimes it’s laughter. Sometimes it’s a stubborn little chorus that says: I’m still here, and I’m still allowed to enjoy myself.
He also frames zydeco the way he’s always framed the American past: as something living, not museum-still. The accordion doesn’t show up as “color”; it shows up as authority. And the track’s long journey—1986 B-side to 2010 bonus track—makes it feel like a rescued moment, a bright photograph found in a drawer years later, still glowing with the same simple truth: music can carry happiness forward, even when time keeps trying to misplace it.