Lion

Mbube is Zulu for lion and is the original name for one of the most popular songs ever written. It was written in 1939 by Solomon Linda, a Zulu tribesman, who was born in the bush near Ladysmith, South Africa.

As a young man, Solomon Linda moved to Johannesburg to seek his fortune. He organized a singing group named the Evening Birds who sang on the weekends. They were a big hit in the beer halls in the Soweto Township where the black laborers lived.

Mr. Linda sang soprano while the other members of the group sang four part harmony. A style they originated was quickly copied.

Solomon Linda and the Evening Birds

In 1939 they met Griffiths Motsieloam, the black partner of Eric Gallo, a jovial Italian who owned the first recoding studio in sub-Saharan Africa. Linda was illiterate and could not read or write music. In 1939 they recoded Mbube and required three takes to get the final, incredible recording. Solly Linda, perhaps because he had no musical score to work from, improvised as he sang the falsetto part over the strong bass chant. At the end of the third take, he abruptly added the melody that has become associated with the words, "In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight." It was a hit and, by 1948, had sold around 100,000 copies. Solomon Linda became famous among the Zulu immigrants.

Pete Seeger and The Weavers

At that time, Pete Seeger was a banjo player living in a cold water flat in Greenwich Village with a wife and two young children. The to-be-famous musicologist Alan Lomax popped up at Pete's place with some African 78s that he thought Seeger might like. One of the records was Mbube, which immediately fascinated Seeger. He transcribed from the record but could not make out the chant of "uyimbube" on the scratchy recording and wrote it as "wimoweh." He taught the tune to his band, the Weavers, a white singing group who sang folk songs and spirituals. The began singing at the Village Vanguard, where a Decca talent scout found them. Because their first record was a hit (Good Night Irene), they recorded more until they did a version of "Wimoweh," which became an enormous hit.

Seeger and the Weavers became victims of McCarthyism. But the song lived on and was recorded by Jimmy Dorsey in 1952 and others including a famous recording by the Kingston Trio live at the Hungry I in San Francisco that remained on the charts for three years.

The Tokens

Jay Siegel the leader of a young singing group from Brooklyn called “The Tokens” introduced the song to his group. He had learned it from an old Weavers album. Their producers had George David Weiss rework the song. Weiss gave the song the name, “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” and added the now famous line “In the jungle, the mighty jungle.” He also excised all of the falsetto hollering from the original and retained the famous, magical melody of Solomon Linda. Weiss obtained a copyright.

Recorded live in RCA's Manhattan studios on July 21, 1961, the song quickly became a big international hit, but not until some weird music history. The recording was the B side of a record with a flop on the A side called "Tina." An obscure DJ in Worcester, MA flipped "Tina" over and was so impressed that he played "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" frequently. The response was unexpectedly strong, and the song reached the national charts by November and quickly become the number one recording..

In the 1990’s, the song was adapted by Disney for use in “The Lion King”. Of course, it was used in the Broadway version too.

Solomon Linda received 10 shillings for the rights to his song about his childhood where he watched his family’s cattle at night to protect them from the lions.

The song has been recorded by 72 different groups over the years and has generated an estimated 15 million dollars or more in royalties, most of which have gone to George David Weiss. Solomon Linda spent his last years on poverty and died in 1962 of renal failure. His descendents have successfully prosecuted a lawsuit against those who have made so much money from Linda's genius. The settlement was reached in February, 2006.

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Contents copyright 2006 by Dr. A. V. Persson and ParaComp, Inc. All rights reserved.

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