![]() ![]() The song then came to be known as "Wimoweh," made famous by Miriam Makeba and later by Pete Seeger and The Weavers. Those parts were taken from "Mbube," a Zulu hunting song written in 1939 by black South African choir leader Solomon Linda. ![]() The song owes its success to the stirring vocal parts, a chanting chorus and a keening falsetto, that have helped to make it a campfire favorite the world over. Which is why BMG has rushed out a Tokens collection titled - you guessed it, The Lion Sleeps Tonight. Now, due to its inclusion in Disney's The Lion King, the song has become a hit all over again. More than 80 versions have been recorded to date, by everyone from Canadian a cappella guys the Nylons to British ambient guru Brian Eno. So how to explain the longevity of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," which made Brooklyn's The Tokens a one-hit wonder in the '60s? Despite its trite lyrics ("In the jungle, the mighty jungle," etc.) the song simply refuses to die. Goode," now hurtling somewhere out in space aboard the Voyager II, will become a hit on Neptune when it reaches the planet sometime in the next millennium. For all we know, Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. And the raunchy Latino standard "La Bamba" has been sanctified by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, no less. The Gipsy Kings, for instance, do Sinatra's signature tune "My Way" their way. Infused with musical elixir, they transcend time and space and even their original language. ![]() The second is that the (mostly wordless) falsetto vocals were improvised by Solomon Linda (over wonderfully sonorous and rhythmically compelling bass riffs) but it was not until near the end (about 2:22) of this, the third, take that he was inspired to produce the melody that is now universally associated with the words “In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight”.Some songs live forever. Rather like King Arthur, there was a folk belief that Shaka is not dead but only sleeping and one day he will return to liberate his people from their colonial oppressors. The first is that the “lion” referred to in the song is none other than the famous Zulu king Shaka Zulu (the subject of this famous poem) who acquired legendary status after his death. There are two other fascinating things about this tune. The song was also used in the Disney film The Lion King without any royalties being paid, leading to a lawsuit brought by Linda’s surviving relatives (which was settled out of court). Solomon Linda sold the rights to the Gallo record company for just ten shillings in 1949 so never received significant income from the worldwide sales. Since then it has had more cover versions than I’ve had hot dinners, mostly with an English title The Lion Sleeps Tonight or Wimoweh, a not-entirely-accurate phonetic attempt to render the isiZulu phrase uyimbube (“you are a lion”) which occurs in the song. The song Mbube by South African singer and composer Solomon Linda was first performed in 1939 and was an immediate hit in his native land. To cut a long story short I found this, and it’s been in my head ever since so I thought I’d share it here. I couldn’t identify some of the sounds so when I came inside I started googling about for various combinations of “birds singing in the evening”. The other evening it was warm enough for me to sit out in the garden, listening to the birdsong until it got dark. And now for something completely different…
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