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The Lion Sleeps Tonight
1961 Tokens song originally composed by Solomon Linda From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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"The Lion Sleeps Tonight" is a song originally written and first recorded in 1939 by Solomon Linda under the title "Mbube", through South African Gallo Record Company. In 1961, a version adapted into English 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. Lyrics of Linda's original version were written in Zulu, while those from the Tokens' adaptation were written by George David Weiss.
The song has been adapted and covered internationally by many pop and folk artists. It was first recorded in the United States by the Weavers in November 1951, and published under the title "Wimoweh" by a branch of Folkways Records in December of the same year.[1] The pop group Tight Fit made a cover of the song in 1982, reaching number one hit in the UK.
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History
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Solomon Linda and "Mbube"
First the Zulu man made the magic. Then the white man made the money.
Solomon Linda, born in rural Natal,[3] was a migrant worker.[4] He held various jobs during the 1930s, including in kitchens and a furniture shop.[5] A beer hall singer,[6] he was also a member of a short-lived choir named the Evening Birds, which dissolved in the mid-1930s. Soon after, Linda formed a new group under the same name, with himself as soprano, Gilbert Madondo as alto, Boy Sibiya as tenor, and Samuel Mlangeni, Gideon Mkhize, and Owen Sikhakhane as basses.[7] They performed a cappella in the weekends and quickly grew a following.[8] Having moved to Johannesburg,[8] Linda became a packer at Eric Gallo's local record-pressing plant,[9] the first in sub-Saharan Africa and, at the time, the only one in black Africa.[10] It was not long before the firm's talent scout noticed the Evening Birds and invited them to the recording studio.[11] Back then, record firms eyed Zulu close-harmony vocal music, which appealed to migrant mineworkers.[12]
The Evening Birds recorded multiple songs at Gallo's studio, and during their second session, in 1939, they achieved their breakthrough.[13] The song, "Mbube"[a], was finished without prior rehearsal after three takes.[16] Performed in four-part harmony,[17] with Mlangeni, Mkhize, and Sikhakhane on bass, Madondo and Sibiya on middle tones, and Linda on a "soaring" soprano,[18] it is sung in a call and response format: the phrases of each section overlap with each other. It follows a cyclical structure.[17] The melody comprises three chords,[16] and the chord progression borrows from the marabi harmonic cycle predominant in twentieth-century South African music (I-IV-I6/4-V7-I).[17] Also featured in the recording are Peter Rezant on guitar, Emily Motsieloa on piano, and possibly Willie Gumede on banjo.[19]
Simon Lafraniere describes the melody as "tender … almost childish in its simplicity."[20] According to 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 Linda yodeled and howled for two minutes, mostly making it up as he went along."[16] Of particular interest to commentators are the melody's final few seconds,[21] where Linda breaks out into a brief howl, "a haunting skein of fifteen notes."[2] This would later become the basis of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".[21]
The lyrics, written in Zulu,[22] are said to document an episode of Linda's childhood when he chased a lion while herding cattle.[23][b]
Yekela yanini, yebo liyaduma amathamsanqa. |
Leave it, indeed it thunders blessings. |
| —as listed in Veit Erlmann's Nightsong[28] |
The chorus, "wembube," is repeated throughout the song.[29][c] "Mbube" borrows strongly from Western influences introduced by missionaries and white singing troupes, one of them being the four-part harmony,[18] and Veit Erlmann goes as far as to imply that the main body "displays only a few features which can be said to be rooted in traditional performance practice."[30] In fact, as a child, Linda had been exposed to spirituals performed by the American Virginia Jubilee Singers.[31] Erlmann additionally notes that the song's triadic structure and harmonic progression resemble urban, Westernised genres[32] and that, on the contrary, the metrically-free introduction mirrors traditional dance music.[33] The vocal lines are intended to evoke tin whistles characteristic of South African street music.[18]
Gallo was impressed with "Mbube" and had it converted into 78 rpm records; it then aired on the rediffusion, a landline that transmitted music and news across black neighbourhoods.[13] The song achieved unprecedented success. Selling over 100,000 copies in Africa over the next ten years,[34] possibly the first to do so,[20] it was the best-selling South African record at the time.[7] In fact, it was the first South African "hit."[35] "Mbube" made Linda a Zulu celebrity, and he came to dominate local hostel singing competitions.[36] It additionally contributed to the rise of Gallo as the largest recording studio in South Africa in an age when the nation's recording studio industry was flourishing.[37] According to Erlmann, "Mbube" became "canonic for an entire generation of performers,"[38] evidenced by the fact that all subsequent South African music styles adopted the song's booming I-IV-V bass patterns.[38]
"Mbube" defined isicathamiya music.[39] A form of a cappella choral song,[40] it originates from an "eclectic choral/performance style based on elements of Zulu traditional music, rehearsed and performed after hours in migrant workers' hostels," as described by Gwen Ansell.[41] These elements are paired with Western, Christian influences.[42] While the genre was born in early-nineteenth-century Natal,[43] its "classic era," as indicated by Erlmann, arose from "Mbube".[35] From 1939 until the early 1950s, the Evening Birds were the face of isicathamiya.[44] Another genre associated with the composition is ingoma busuku, "urban working-class Zulu–Swazi … choral music patterned after African church choirs and combining [various] performance elements in a syncretic blend,"[43] which "Mbube" popularised among a vast, urban African audience.[45] So influential was the song that the word "mbube" became shorthand for male a cappella choral singing in South Africa.[46][e]
Pete Seeger and "Wimoweh"
Pete Seeger of the Weavers, who, in 1952, covered "Mbube" and thus popularised the tune in the United States
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. 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.
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".
George Weiss, the Tokens, and "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"
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 lyrics beginning with, "In the jungle, the mighty jungle, The lion sleeps tonight..."[6] "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.[47]
Later developments and impact
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.
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Copyright issues
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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.[48]
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. 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 were carried out.[48]
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. At the same time, the Richmond Organization began to pay $3,000 annually to 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.[49]
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.
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Charted singles
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The Tokens
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Robert John
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Tight Fit
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R.E.M.
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