The Gummy Bear Song

About

The Gummy Bear Song is a novelty dance-pop song written by German composer Christian Schneider in reference to Gummibär, a German brand of bear-shaped candy. Readily made available as mobile ringtone, its popularity can be comparable to that of Axel F and Crazy Frog, characterized by obnoxious repetition of lyrics and catchy melodies.

Origin

The original song was released as a single in 2007 as a 30-second clip in Hungarian. It was eventually translated and released into over a dozen different languages including English, Spanish, French and Swedish, allowing it to mature into an international phenomenon.

With the now infamous Gummy Bear Song, the video soon went viral on both YouTube^[1] and MySpace^[2]. Collectively, the English version of the song has 105 million views between the two main editions on YouTube and MySpace. The official Gummibär site^[3] keeps an archive of all of the versions of the original, as well as other songs that have been recorded in the Gummy Bear style.

Spread

The video spread to video hubs such as I Am Bored.com^[4], Metacafe^[5], Yahoo^[6], and FunnyJunk^[7], gaining views and popularity across the Internet. In July 2008, two years after its release, Metro.co.uk featured an article on the popularity of the song^[8].

The original ring tone spent a large amount of time topping ring tone charts, in particular, the Canadian Jamster chart in February 2009^[9] and iTunes Dance chart in April 2009^[10].

Google trends shows that the song continues to be popular, still showing search volume over five years after its initial release.

Derivatives

An early remix by Mr22Ash, uploaded in May 2007, has over six million views^[11].

Hannah Montana mashup (August 2007) 1,172,000+ views:

Techno Remix (March 2008) 2,360,000+ views:

Chipmunk version (April 2008) 4,555,000+ views:

Mario mashup (May 2008) 374,000+ views:

Live Action (August 2008) 572,000+ views:

Backward (October 2008) 190,000+ views:

External References

^[1] YouTube – Gummibär channel

^[2] MySpace – Gummibär page

^[3] Gummibär.net

^[4] I Am Bored.com

^[5] Metacafe

^[6] Yahoo!

^[7] FunnyJunk

^[8] Metro.co.uk – Gummy Bear is the new Crazy Frog

^[9] Gummibär.net – The Gummy Bear Song Is #1 On The Jamster Canada Ringtone Chart

^[10] Gummibär.net – The Gummy Bear Song Is The #1 Dance Ringtone On iTunes!

^[11] YouTube – Gummy Bear Song (Extended Remix) – 22 Ash (embedding disabled)