![]() It achieved mass exposure (without orchestra) in their best-selling The Weavers at Carnegie Hall LP album, recorded in 1955 and issued in 1957, and was covered extensively by other folk revival groups, such as The Kingston Trio. Their version, which contained the chanting chorus "Wimoweh" and Linda's line, "In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight", reached Billboard's top ten and became a staple of The Weavers' live repertoire. In November 1951, after having performed the song for at least a year in their concerts, The Weavers recorded an adapted version with brass and string orchestra and chorus as a 78 single entitled "Wimoweh", a mishearing of the original song's chorus of "Uyimbube", Zulu: You are a lion. In 1949, Alan Lomax, then working as folk music director for Decca Records, brought Solomon Linda's 78 recording to the attention of his friend Pete Seeger of the folk group The Weavers. By 1948 the song had sold about 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. ![]() Issued by Gallo as a 78 recording in 1939 and marketed to black audiences, "Mbube" became a hit and Linda a star throughout South Africa. ![]() In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight. 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: "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. According to South African journalist Rian Malan: "Mbube" (Zulu: lion) was written in the 1920s by Solomon Linda, South African singer of Zulu origin, who worked for the Gallo Record Company as a cleaner and record packer, and who performed with a choir, The Evening Birds. Wimoweh tokens series#Then, in the mid-nineties, it became a pop "supernova" (in the words of South African writer Rian Malan) when licensed to Walt Disney for use in the film The Lion King, its spin-off TV series and live musical, prompting a lawsuit on behalf of the impoverished descendants of Solomon Linda. It went on to earn at least 15 million US dollars in royalties from covers and film licensing. as adapted by the Doo-Wop group The Tokens. In 1961, it became a number one hit in the U.S. It was covered internationally by many 1950s pop and folk revival artists, including The Weavers, Jimmy Dorsey, Yma Sumac, Miriam Makeba, and The Kingston Trio. For those who couldn't get enough of the Tokens, several additional recordings from their RCA period were made available the same year on a budget collection, The Lion Sleeps Tonight."The Lion Sleeps Tonight", also known as "Wimoweh" and originally as "Mbube" is a song recorded by Solomon Linda and his group The Evening Birds for the South African Gallo Record Company in 1939. Wimoweh: The Best of the Tokens also includes three previously unreleased songs for collectors. ![]() The anthology also compiles a number of choice cuts and oddities that fall in-between, from the gorgeous "Somewhere There's a Girl" to the weirdly insulting love song "You're Nothing But a Girl." There's a "Little Darlin'" retread titled "Dry Your Eyes" and several songs with "night" or "tonight" in the title in apparent reference to the group's first two hits. When those failed, the Tokens returned to straightforward doo wop material ("Tonight I Met an Angel"), covers of other vocal groups' hits ("Sincerely," "A Thousand Miles Away"), and, finally, Beach Boys-style car songs ("My Friend's Car"). Wimoweh: The Best of the Tokens rounds up all six of their chart entries, some of which - like "B'Wanina (Pretty Girl)" and "La Bamba" - repeated the "Wimoweh" formula. ![]() The Tokens' unlikely blend of doo wop and what was, in folk circles, termed "ethnic music," resulted in one enormous and enduring hit: "The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh)." After that, it was all downhill for the group during their RCA tenure - the biggest of their followup hits reached a modest number 55 on the charts. ![]()
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