"The Lion Sleeps Tonight" is a song originally written and first recorded in 1939 by Solomon Linda[2] under the title "Mbube",[3] through South African Gallo Record Company. Lyrics of Linda's original version were written in Zulu, while those of the English one were later written by George David Weiss.
The song has been adapted and covered internationally by many pop and folk artists. It was recorded as "Wimoweh" by the Weavers in November 1951, and published by "Folkways Music Publishers", a branch of the then-Folkways Records, in December of the same year.[4] Artists who have recorded various versions of the song include also R.E.M., NSYNC, Henri Salvador, Karl Denver, Jimmy Dorsey, Yma Sumac, Noro Morales, Roy Zimmerman, Miriam Makeba, and The Kingston Trio,[5]
In 1961, a version adapted into English with the title "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" by the doo-wop group the Tokens became a number-one hit in the United States. It earned millions in royalties from cover versions and film licensing. The pop group Tight Fit made a cover of the song in 1982, reaching number one hit in the UK. This song is in the key of F major.
The original song title was "Mbube" (the Zulu word for "lion") and was written and first recorded in 1939 by Solomon Linda,[6] a South African Zulu singer, who worked for the Gallo Record Company in Johannesburg as a cleaner and record packer. He spent his weekends performing with his musical ensemble, "The Evening Birds", and it was at this record label, under the direction of producer "Griffiths Motsieloa", that Linda and his fellow musicians recorded several songs, including "Mbube", which incorporated a call and response pattern common among many Sub-Saharan African ethnic groups, including the Zulu.
According to journalist Rian Malan:
"Mbube" wasn't the most remarkable tune, but there was something compelling about the underlying chant, a dense meshing of low male voices above which Solomon yodelled and howled for two exhilarating minutes, improvising occasionally. The third take was the best, achieving immortality when Solly took a deep breath, opened his mouth, and improvised the melody that the world now associates with these words:
In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight.[2]
Issued as a 78-rpm phonograph record[7] and marketed to black audiences, "Mbube" became a hit and Linda a star throughout South Africa. By 1948, the song had sold over 100,000 copies in Africa and among black South African immigrants in Great Britain. Linda's song also gave the name to a style of African A cappella music that evolved into Isicathamiya (also called Mbube music), popularized by the group Ladysmith Black Mambazo.[8]
In 1949 Alan Lomax, then working as folk music director for Decca Records, brought Solomon Linda's 78-rpm recording to the attention of his friend Pete Seeger, leader of the folk group The Weavers. In November 1951, after having performed the song for at least a year in their concerts, The Weavers recorded an adapted version with brass, string orchestra and chorus and released it as a 78-rpm single titled "Wimoweh", a mishearing of the original song's chorus of "Uyimbube" ("You are a lion" in Zulu). Their version contained the chanting chorus "Wimoweh" and Linda's improvised line. The Weavers credited the song as "Oral tradition", with arrangement by "Paul Campbell", later found to be a pseudonym used by The Weavers in order to claim royalties.[9] It reached Billboard's top ten and became a staple of The Weavers' live repertoire, achieving further exposure on their best-selling The Weavers at Carnegie Hall LP album, recorded in 1955 and released in 1957.
Exotica singer Yma Sumac covered the song, for which Juilliard School-trained songwriter George David Weiss brought in soprano Anita Darian to let her perform before, during and after the soprano saxophone solo in such version, issued in 1952 on Capitol Records.[10] The song was recorded extensively by other folk revival groups such as the Kingston Trio, who released it in 1958.
Miriam Makeba also covered the song in 1960, with the original title "Mbube" and giving writing credits to "J. Linda".[9] In 1961, two RCA Records producers, Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore, hired Weiss to arrange a Doo-wop and Rhythm and blues cover of "Wimoweh" for the B-side of a 45-rpm single called "Tina", sung by group The Tokens. Weiss wrote the English lines "In the jungle, the mighty jungle, The lion sleeps tonight..." and "Hush, my darling, don't fear, my darling...".[11] "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" was issued by RCA in that year, and it rocketed to number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Weiss' "Abilene Music, Inc." was the publisher of this arrangement, and listed "Albert Stanton" (a pseudonym for "Al Brackman", the business partner of Pete Seeger's music publisher, Howie Richmond) as one of the song's writers or arrangers.[12]
Social historian Ronald D. Cohen writes: "Howie Richmond copyrighted many songs originally in the public domain but now slightly revised to satisfy Decca and also to reap profits".[13] Howie Richmond's claim of author's copyright could secure both the songwriter's royalties and his company's publishing share of the song earnings.[2]
Although Solomon Linda was listed as a performer on the record itself, the Weavers thought they had recorded a traditional Zulu song. Their managers, the publisher, and their attorneys knew otherwise because they had been contacted by — and had reached an agreement with — Eric Gallo of Gallo Record Company in South Africa. The Americans maintained, however, that South African copyrights were not valid because South Africa was not a signatory to U.S. copyright law.[2] In the 1950s, after Linda's authorship was made clear, Pete Seeger sent $1000 to the South African artist. The folk singer also said he instructed TRO/Folkways to henceforth pay his share of authors' earnings to Linda. Seeger apparently trusted his publisher's word of honor and either saw no need, or was unable, to make sure these instructions to be carried out.[2]
In 2000, South African journalist Rian Malan wrote a feature article for Rolling Stone in which he recounted Linda's story and estimated that the song had earned $15 million for its use in the Disney 1994 movie The Lion King alone. The piece prompted filmmaker François Verster to create the Emmy-winning documentary A Lion's Trail, released in 2002, which tells Linda's story while incidentally exposing the workings of the multi-million dollar corporate music publishing industry.[14] In 2003 a CGI animation French TV series, Pat & Stan, features protagonists, a brown hippopotamus and a yellow dog, singing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". It marked the two's debut appearance and was the pilot episode to ITV's shorts and the sketch of the same name.
In July 2004, as a result of the publicity generated by Malan's article and the subsequent documentary, the song became the subject of a lawsuit between Linda's estate and Disney, claiming that the latter owed $1.6 million in royalties for the use of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" in the film and musical stage productions of The Lion King.[15] At the same time, the Richmond Organization began to pay $3,000 annually to the Linda's estate. In February 2006, the South African singer's descendants reached a legal settlement with Abilene Music Publishers, who held the worldwide rights and had licensed the song to Disney, to place the earnings of the song in a trust.[16][17]
In 2012, "Mbube" fell into the public domain, owing to the copyright law of South Africa, while "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" is still in copyright. The copyright issues were also treated in the 2019 movie ReMastered: The Lion's Share.[18]
The song has been recorded by numerous artists, and is a standard that has become a part of popular culture.
