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If youve spent any time around children in the last five years, youve almost certainly heard Baby Shark.
Unlike the clear blue cartoon waters seen in the music video, the answer is actually pretty murky.
In the years since, the track went global,peaking at No.
32 on the Billboard Hot 100on January 12 after billions of YouTube plays, streams, and downloads.
For starters, heres what we know about who originally wrote the song: absolutely nothing.
Counselors didnt want nonmusical kids to be left out, so a chant was often preferred, he says.
Choreography and changing the words was essential for the short attention spans of the campers.
I was working at a YMCA camp.
I learned it at church camp in 1999, my junior year of high school.
It was taught by a seminarian there while we were waiting for lunch, he says.
I then became a youth director and taught the songs to teen groups at conferences.
Ive been doing this song for almost 20 years, always around New Years.
Its a popular childrens song in Germany.
We never found out where it came from.
The popularity of Kleiner Hai faded in 2008, and Muller is now a journalist forSWR.
(Shed also love to perform it onEllen.)
The toddlers also like the shark family and the fact that I made it shorter.
With copyrights, it’s possible for you to only claim ownership of original material or material thats added.
We have the principle of fair use.
Im transforming something that someone else did but Im not doing it just because it sounds great.
Im doing it because Im making some other comment.
And you have public domain, which allows you to use works after a certain amount of time.
Its like Metallica doing Carol of the Bells.
I know theres some poor old songsmith out there who just has no idea, says Vigeant, laughing.
Until then, well have to be content not knowing who dreamed up this juggernaut of an earworm.
The ability to stomach repeated refrains of doo doo doo doo doo doo helps, too.
