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 (1970), 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 thing I wanted to talk about was gun control and the proliferation of guns... I remember reading around that time that there was one gun for every man, woman and child in America, which I found staggering. So somewhere in the song, I think I said, '200 million guns are loaded.' Not that anyone else has the answer, but I did not have the answer to the question; I just had the question. I just thought it was disturbing that it was such a jungle for our citizens just to walk around in our own country at least having to be aware that there are so many private guns owned by some responsible and maybe many irresponsible people."

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 (the band's sixth single to reach the top ten), and eventually was certified gold by the RIAA, for sales of over one million copies.

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