B-side "Back-Door Angels" Length 3:35 | Format 7" single | |
Released 14 October 1974 (U.S.)
26 October 1974 (UK) Recorded 1974 at Morgan Studios, London Genre Progressive rock, hard rock | ||
"Bungle in the Jungle" is a song by British progressive rock band Jethro Tull. It was released on their 1974 album War Child, and became their greatest North American hit. It would be their second and final Top 40 hit in the U.S., reaching No. 12 in January, 1975. It was their longest-charting single, at 16 weeks.
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It was a yet bigger hit in Canada, reaching number four. It was the 51st biggest Canadian hit of 1975.
Composition and recording
In early 1972 or late 1973, Jethro Tull were in Paris, recording what in time came to be known as "The Chateu D'isaster Tapes." Not released at the time, however, one or two of the songs managed to get recorded in the albums A Passion Play and War Child. At that time Anderson was working on a different album about the human condition, with analogies from the animal kingdom. "Bungle in the Jungle" was finished just in time to be put onto War Child in 1974.
The song was written and composed to become part of the soundtrack for a movie which was never actually produced. The movie script was a black comedy about a dead teenage girl visiting Heaven and her various misadventures in the afterlife.