Welcome to the Jungle

"Welcome to the Jungle" is a song by American rock band Guns N' Roses, featured 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. Background and composition Axl Rose wrote the lyrics while visiting a friend in Seattle: "It's a big city, but at the same time, it's still a small city compared to L.A. and the things that you're gonna learn. It seemed a lot more rural up there. I just wrote how it looked to me. If someone comes to town and they want to find something, they can find whatever they want." Guitarist Izzy Stradlin summarizes the song as "about Hollywood streets; true to life". Slash describes the development of the music in his self-titled autobiography. As the band was trying to write new material, Rose remembered a riff Slash had played while he was living in the basement of Slash's mother's house. He played it and the band quickly laid down the foundations for the song, as Slash continued coming up with new guitar parts. "It was really the first thing we all collaborated on…" the guitarist recalled. "In that whole 'discovering ourselves' period from '85 through '86 – when we were living together very haphazardly and getting together and jamming – there was something going on that not a lot of people had. And this song just had this natural feel that was very cool."