About The Song
“Welcome to the Jungle” is a song by American rock band Guns N’ Roses, featured as the opening track on their debut album, Appetite for Destruction (1987). It was released as the album’s second single initially in the UK in September 1987 then again in October 1988 this time including the US, where it reached number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 24 on the UK Singles Chart.
On the 1987 release, the 7″ was backed with a live version of AC/DC’s “Whole Lotta Rosie”, while the 12″ also contained live versions of the band’s debut single “It’s So Easy” and Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”. In 2009, “Welcome to the Jungle” was named the greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1. In 2021, Rolling Stone listed “Welcome to the Jungle” at 491 on their “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” list.
“Welcome to the Jungle” was ranked number 19 in Martin Popoff’s book The Top 500 Heavy Metal Songs of All Time. It was also named the second greatest metal song by VH1 in 2008. In 2006, VH1 also placed the song at number 26 on its list of the “100 Greatest Songs of the 80s” and, in 2009, the channel ranked it the greatest hard rock song of all time. It was ranked number 467 in Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” list in 2004, number 473 in 2010, and number 491 in 2021. (Rolling Stone readers named it “the greatest sports anthem” in 2009) and number 764 in Q’s “1001 Best Songs Ever”. Paste and Kerrang both named it Guns N’ Roses’ greatest song. It was named the “greatest song about Los Angeles” in a 2006 Blender poll.
“‘Welcome to the Jungle’ had this high velocity, high impact, aggressive delivery,” Slash observed. “But there were a lot of emotional subtleties in the song that the band really grasped. If Axl went here, the band went with him. I really love that about the band and the music and how it all came together. There was something magical in all of that.”
Cash Box called it a “solid, satisfying chunk of metal.”
Video
Lyrics
Welcome to the jungle
We got fun and games
We got everything you want
Honey, we know the names
We are the people that can find
Whatever you may need
If you got no money, honey
We got your disease
In the jungle, welcome to the jungle
Watch it bring you to your sha-na-na-na-na-na-na knees, knees
Ooh-ah, I wanna watch you bleed
Welcome to the jungle
We take it day by day
If you want it, you’re gonna bleed
But that’s the price you pay
And you’re a very sexy girl
Who’s very hard to please
You can taste the bright lights
But you won’t get them for free
In the jungle, welcome to the jungle
Feel my, my, my, my serpentine
I, I wanna hear you scream
Welcome to the jungle
It’s worse here everyday
You learn to live like an animal
In the jungle where we play
You got a hunger for what you see
You’ll take it eventually
You can have anything you want
But you better not take it from me
In the jungle, welcome to the jungle
Watch it bring you to your sha-na-na-na-na-na-na knees, knees
Ooh-ah, I’m gonna watch you bleed
And when you’re high, you never
Ever want to come down
So down, so down, so down, yeah
Aw
You know where you are?
You’re in the jungle, baby
You’re gonna die
In the jungle, welcome to the jungle
Watch it bring you to your sha-na-na-na-na-na-na knees, knees
In the jungle, welcome to the jungle
Feel my, my, my, my serpentine
Jungle, welcome to the jungle
Watch it bring you to your sha-na-na-na-na-na-na knees, knees
In the jungle, welcome to the jungle
Watch it bring to your
It’s gonna bring you down, huh