The Lion Sleeps Tonight

"The Lion Sleeps Tonight"

Single by The Tokens

from the album The Lion Sleeps Tonight

B-side

"Dry Your Eyes"

Released

1961

Genre

Rhythm and blues, doo-wop, world

Length

2:41

Label

RCA

Writer(s)

Solomon Linda
Hugo Peretti
Luigi Creatore
George David Weiss
Albert Stanton

Audio sample
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"The Lion Sleeps Tonight", also known as "Wimoweh", "Wimba Way" or "Awimbawe", is a song written and recorded by Solomon Linda with the Evening Birds^[1] for the South African Gallo Record Company in 1939, under the title "Mbube". Composed in Zulu, it was adapted and covered internationally by many 1950s pop and folk revival artists, including Pete Seeger, the Weavers, Jimmy Dorsey, Yma Sumac, Miriam Makeba and the Kingston Trio. In 1961, it became a number one hit in the United States as adapted in English by the doo-wop group the Tokens. It went on to earn at least US$15 million in royalties from cover versions and film licensing.

In the mid-nineties, it became a pop "supernova" when licensed to Walt Disney for use in the film The Lion King, its spin-off TV series and live musical, prompting a lawsuit in 2004, on behalf of the descendants of Solomon Linda.

History

"Mbube" (Zulu: lion) was written in the 1920s, by Solomon Linda, a South African singer of Zulu origin, who later worked for the Gallo Record Company in Johannesburg, as a cleaner and record packer. He spent his weekends performing with a music group, the Evening Birds, and it was at Gallo Records, under the direction of black producer Griffiths Motsieloa, that Linda and his fellow musicians recorded several songs including "Mbube," incorporating a call-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 terribly compelling about the underlying chant, a dense meshing of low male voices above which Solomon yodelled and howled for two exhilarating minutes, occasionally making it up as he went along. The third take was the great one, but it achieved immortality only in its dying seconds, 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.^[1]

^ Cite error: The named reference In_the_Jungle was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

Issued by Gallo as a 78 recording in 1939, and marketed to black audiences,^[2] "Mbube" became a hit and Linda a star throughout South Africa. By 1948, the song had sold 100,000 copies in Africa and among black South African immigrants in Great Britain, and had lent its name to a style of African a cappella music that evolved into isicathamiya (also called mbube), popularized by Ladysmith Black Mambazo.^[3]

In 1961, two RCA producers, Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore, hired Juilliard-trained musician and lyricist George David Weiss to arrange a pop music cover of "Wimoweh", as the B-side of a 45-rpm single called "Tina" sung by the teenage doo-wop group The Tokens. Weiss wrote the English lyrics: "In the jungle, the mighty jungle, The lion sleeps tonight..." and "Hush, my darling, don't fear, my darling..."

Weiss also brought in soprano Anita Darian to reprise Yma Sumac's Exotica version, before, during and after the saxophone solo.^[4] Issued by RCA in 1961, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" rocketed to number one^[4] 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. This earned TRO/Folkways a share of the author's half of the royalty earnings.^[5]

Copyright issues

Social historian Ronald D. Cohen writes, "Howie Richmond copyrighted many songs originally in the public domain [sic] but now slightly revised to satisfy Decca and also to reap the profits."^[6] Canadian writer Mark Steyn, on the other hand, attributes the invention of the pseudonym "Paul Campbell" to Pete Seeger.^[7] Howie Richmond's claim of author's copyright could secure both the songwriter's royalties and his company's publishing share of the song's earnings.^[1]

Pete Seeger expressed concerns about the copyright laws associated with the song. Folkways Records founder Moe Asch frequently voiced the belief that traditional songs could not and should not be copyrighted at all.^[8] Although Linda's name was listed as a performer on the record, The Weavers assumed that the song was traditional. The Weavers' managers and publisher and their attorneys, however, knew otherwise, because they were contacted by and reached an agreement with Eric Gallo of South Africa. They attempted to maintain, however, that South African copyrights were not valid because South Africa was not a signatory to U.S. copyright law and were hence "fair game."^[1] As early as the 1950s, when Linda's authorship was made clear, Seeger sent him a donation of one thousand dollars and instructed TRO/Folkways to henceforth donate his (Seeger's) share of authors' earnings. The folksinger, however, who was not a businessman, trusted his publisher's word of honor and neglected or was unable to see to it that these instructions were carried out.^[1]

In 2000, South African journalist Rian Malan wrote a feature article for Rolling Stone magazine in which he recounted Linda's story and estimated that the song had earned $15 million for its use in the movie The Lion King alone. The piece prompted filmmaker François Verster to create the Emmy-winning documentary A Lion's Trail (2002) that told Linda's story while incidentally exposing the workings of the multi-million dollar corporate music publishing industry.^[9]

In July 2004, as a result of the publicity generated by Malan's Rolling Stone article and the subsequent filmed documentary, the song became the subject of a lawsuit between Solomon Linda's estate and Disney, claiming that Disney 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.^[10] At the same time, The Richmond Organization began to pay $3,000 annually into Linda's estate. In February 2006, Linda'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.^[11]^[12]

Selected list of recorded versions

"Mbube"

1939 Solomon Linda and the Evening Birds^[13]
1951 In the first film adaptation of Cry, the Beloved Country
1960 Miriam Makeba, on Miriam Makeba
1988 Ladysmith Black Mambazo, as "Mbube", during opening sequence of movie Coming to America (but not on the soundtrack album)
1991 The Elite Swingsters Featuring Dolly Rathebe, as "Mbube" on Woza!
1994 Ladysmith Black Mambazo, as "Mbube (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)", on Gift of the Tortoise
1996 Soweto String Quartet, as "Imbube" on Renaissance
2005 Soweto Gospel Choir, as "Imbube" on Blessed
2006 Ladysmith Black Mambazo, as "Mbube", on Long Walk to Freedom
2007 CH2 and Soweto String Quartet, as "Imbube" on Pap & Paella
2010 Angélique Kidjo, as "Mbube" on Õÿö

"Wimoweh"

1952: The Weavers: US #6
1952: Jimmy Dorsey
1952: Yma Sumac
1957: The Weavers, live.
1959: Bill Hayes (on Kapp Records)
1959: The Kingston Trio
1961: Karl Denver Trio: UK #4
1962: Bert Kaempfert on That Happy Feeling
1964: Chet Atkins
1993: Nanci Griffith with Odetta, on Other Voices, Other Rooms
1994: Roger Whittaker, on Roger Whittaker Live!
1994: Manu Dibango and Ladysmith Black Mambazo, on Waka Afrika
1998: Pete Seeger on For Kids And Just Plain Folks
1999: Desmond Dekker on Halfway To Paradise