Did none of the seven people credited with writing “Wolves,” the new song from Selena Gomez and Marshmello, bother to research the natural habitat of the titular animals?
“I've been running through the jungle / I've been running with the wolves,” Gomez sings, “To get to you, to get to you.”
Wolves, of course, don’t live in the jungle. They’re found in forests, arctic tundras, grasslands and deserts.
While it’s possible Gomez is making two separate and unrelated statements in the song, she and the song’s co-writers would not be the first to lyrically place an animal in the wrong habitat.
The classic song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” – written in 1939 but made famous by the Tokens in 1961 – claims: “In the jungle, the mighty jungle / The lion sleeps tonight / In the jungle the quiet jungle / The lion sleeps tonight.”
A-weema-weh…
The lion is sleeping because it’s a long way from home. Lions live on savannahs and grassy plains, not jungles.
Animals have also been musically mischaracterized and misidentified.
Nelly Furtado had a lot of success with 2000’s “I’m Like A Bird” even though its lyrics probably ruffled the feathers of some ornithologists.
“I’m like a bird / I’ll only fly away,” Furtado sings. “I don't know where my home is.”
Thing is, birds are actually very good at making their way home.
And, the biggest album by the Black Eyed Peas was 2005’s Monkey Business – which featured a drawing of a chimpanzee on the cover.
Chimps, of course, are not monkeys. Like gorillas and humans, they are apes.
