The song was written by Creedence's lead singer, guitarist and songwriter, John Fogerty. It was included on their 1970 album Cosmo's Factory, the group's fifth album. The song's title and lyrics, as well as the year it was released, have led many to assume that the song is about the Vietnam War. The fact that previous Creedence Clearwater Revival songs such as "Fortunate Son" were protests of the Vietnam War added to this belief. However, in a 2016 interview, Fogerty explained that the song is actually about the proliferation of guns in the United States. The song's opening and closing both featured jungle sound effects created by, according to the band's bassist Stu Cook, "lots of backwards recorded guitar and piano." The harmonica part on the song was played by John Fogerty. The song was also Tom Fogerty's favorite CCR song: "My all-time favorite Creedence tune was 'Run Through the Jungle'.... It's like a little movie in itself with all the sound effects. It never changes key, but it holds your interest the whole time. It's like a musician's dream. It never changes key, yet you get the illusion it does." The song was released as the flipside of a double sided single, along with "Up Around the Bend," that was released in April 1970. Counted as one chart entry by Billboard's chart methodology, the single reached number four on the Pop Singles chart, and eventually was certified gold by the RIAA, for sales of over one million copies.
Controversy
The song was later the subject of controversy when Saul Zaentz, the boss of CCR's record label, Fantasy Records, which owns the distribution and publishing rights to the music of Creedence Clearwater Revival, brought a series of lawsuits against John Fogerty, including a claim that the music from Fogerty's 1984 song "The Old Man Down the Road" was too similar to "Run Through the Jungle." Zaentz won some of his claims against Fogerty, but lost on the copyright issue. The judge found that an artist cannot plagiarize himself. After winning the case, Fogerty sued Zaentz for the cost of defending himself against the copyright infringement claim. In such cases, prevailing defendants seeking recompense were bound to show that original suit was frivolous or made in bad faith. Fogerty v. Fantasy, Inc. became precedent when the United States Supreme Court overturned lower court rulings and awarded attorneys' fees to Fogerty, without Fogerty having to show that Zaentz's original suit was frivolous.
"Run Through the Jungle" has appeared in films like Air America, My Girl, Rudy, The Big Lebowski, Radio Arrow, Tropic Thunder, The Sapphires , ' and Triple Frontier. It has appeared in many video games that depict the Vietnam War, notably licensed for '. The song features in the Hardcastle and McCormick Season 3 episode "She Ain't Deep But She Sure Runs Fast." The song also features in the season 2 of FX's TV seriesFargo.
