The Lion Sleeps Tonight

Solomon Linda was born in a rural part of the Colony of Natal in southern Africa. During his childhood, he followed the Virginia Jubilee Singers, an American minstrel group that toured South Africa and performed spirituals. A migrant worker and beer hall singer, he sang in a short-lived choir named the Evening Birds, which dissolved in 1933. Linda founded a new group under the same name soon after. The group, comprising himself as soprano, Gilbert Madondo as alto, Boy Sibiya as tenor, and Samuel Mlangeni, Gideon Mkhize, and Owen Sikhakhane as basses, performed a cappella in the weekends and quickly grew a local following. Working-class culture in South Africa flourished around this time as the nation's manufacturing industry grew. It was not long before the firm's talent scout noticed the Evening Birds and invited them to the recording studio. Back then, record firms eyed Zulu close-harmony vocal music since it appealed to migrant mineworkers. The Evening Birds recorded multiple songs at Gallo's studio, and during their second session, in 1939, they recorded "Mbube". It was finished without rehearsal after three takes. Also featured in the recording are Peter Rezant on guitar, Emily Motsieloa on piano, and possibly Willie Gumede on banjo. "Mbube" impressed Gallo, and he had it turned into 78 rpm records; it then aired on the rediffusion, a landline that broadcast music and news across black neighbourhoods. == Composition ==

Performed in four-part harmony with Mlangeni, Mkhize, and Sikhakhane on bass, Madondo and Sibiya on middle tones, and Linda on soprano, "Mbube" is sung in a call and response format: the phrases of each section overlap. It follows a cyclical structure. The melody is built over three chords, and the chord progression borrows from the marabi harmonic cycle common in twentieth-century South African music (I-IV-I6/4-V7-I). Journalist Sharon LaFraniere describes the melody as "tender ... almost childish in its simplicity". In South African author Rian Malan's view, "'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." This would be the melodic basis for the Tokens' cover. The lyrics, written in Zulu, are said to document an episode of Linda's childhood when he chased a lion while herding cattle. The chorus "wembube" is repeated throughout. "Mbube" borrows strongly from Western influences raised by missionaries and white singing troupes, among which is the four-part harmony, with music historian Veit Erlmann asserting that the main body "displays only a few features which can be said to be rooted in traditional performance practice". These Western elements, argues journalist Lior Phillips, "gave 'Mbube' a chance globally". Erlmann notes that the song's triadic structure and harmonic progression resemble urban, Westernised genres and that by contrast, the metrically-free introduction mirrors traditional dance music. The vocal lines are meant to evoke tin whistles typical of South African street music. == Reception ==

"Mbube" achieved widespread success. With over 100,000 copies sold in Africa over the next nine years, Erlmann considers it the first South African "hit". It made Linda "a legend in the Zulu subculture", and his band went on to dominate all-night song competitions, according to Malan. Still, he did not profit, as he had sold his rights to "Mbube" to Eric Gallo for ten shillings just after the recording session. Seeing that Linda could not read and had no understanding of royalties, a South African court would by 2006, deem this deal unfair. Gallo also paid Linda the equivalent of $2 for the first run of a few hundred records. But Linda never attained wealth or fortune. He lived in a household with a dirt floor coated in cow manure, and malnutrition took the life of one of his children. He died three years later aged 53. At the time of his death, his bank account contained roughly $40 in today's money. His family could not afford a tombstone. "Mbube" defined contemporary South African music and the isicathamiya genre. Isicathamiya is a form of a capella choral song stemming from "elements of Zulu traditional music ... rehearsed and performed after hours in migrant workers' hostels", writes Gwen Ansell, along with Western, Christian influences. The word mbube became shorthand for male a cappella choral singing in South Africa and lent its name to a distinct music style. This style, in anthropologist David B. Coplan's words, "appealed across the class spectrum, melodised a growing African nationalism, created nostalgia for a lost society, and fused urban and rural values". According to Erlmann, "Mbube" was "canonic for an entire generation of performers". For instance, all subsequent South African music styles adopted its booming I-IV-V bass patterns. == The Weavers version ==

Some years later, Gallo sent a bundle of records to Decca Records in the United States. They were about to be discarded before Decca employee and ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax salvaged them; among these records was "Mbube". He handed the box over to folk singer Pete Seeger of the Weavers. A penniless banjo player, Seeger had entered music after quitting university and accustoming himself with popular songs of the Great Depression. "Mbube" fascinated him, and he promptly transcribed it word for word, although he misheard the chorus as wimoweh. "What really grabbed Pete", writes Jesse Jarnow in his Weavers biography, "was the high, worldess falsetto that floated on top and—most especially—where it landed, in a secondary melody, sad and sweet". Seeger convened the band at the Village Vanguard to record it. He attempted to describe the vocal parts as he heard them, and the Weavers eventually settled on a repeated chant of "wimoweh, a-wimoweh", with Seeger performing falsettoes. As Malan writes, their recording "was faithful to the Zulu original in almost all respects save for the finger-popping rhythm". To broaden its appeal, bandleader Gordon Jenkins composed a brass accompaniment to the recording that stressed Linda's brief howl toward the end of "Mbube". In December 1951, the Weavers released "Wimoweh". Seeger later said that it was "just about my favorite song to sing for the next forty years". Even though records of "Mbube" contained the words African Music Research Copyright Control, Richmond claimed it was a folk song. Such a practice was then common. Royalties for "Wimoweh" were split two ways: half went to the Weavers' publishers—Howard Richmond (of The Richmond Organization) and Albert Brackman—and their manager, Pete Kameron, and the other half to the Weavers. None went to Linda. "Wimoweh" reached No. 6 on the US charts, but this success briefly crashed when Harvey Matusow, a prolific informer of the McCarthy era, accused three of the Weavers of being affiliated with the Communist Party. Nevertheless, it became a Weavers standard. The song's profile rose when they performed it at Carnegie Hall in 1957. Jimmy Dorsey and the Kingston Trio recorded covers around this time. Charts }; for the year: == The Tokens version ==

Malan writes that by the 1950s' end, "almost everyone in America knew the basic refrain" of "Wimoweh". After hearing a live Weavers performance of the song, the Tokens, a teen doo-wop group from Brooklyn, decided to record their own version. They had already attained a hit, "Tonight I Fell in Love", and signed up with RCA for a three-record contract effectively commencing in 1961. While their first two records, "When I Go to Sleep at Night/Dry Your Eyes" and "Sincerely", struggled commercially, their third would fare better. For their third attempt, the Tokens approached musician George David Weiss and solicited an overhaul of "Wimoweh" to "give it some intelligible lyrics and a contemporary feel". He purged the song of its shrieks and hollers while leaving the chant unchanged and made Linda's final improvised notes the new tune. Thirty-three words were added as English lyrics, beginning with, "In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight". Jarnow notes that the lyrics were based on "a vague understanding of ["Mbube"]'s title". The Tokens then recorded Weiss' version, with Jay Siegel performing falsettos, the rest of the band chanting "wimoweh", and guest opera singer Anita Darian "[diving] in the high heavens" with her "haunting" countermelodies, in Malan's words. Accompanying them were an orchestra, a percussionist on timpani, and session musicians on guitar, drums and bass. Linda again received no credit. While the A-side "Tina" failed, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" surged to No. 1 in the US charts and in numerous other countries. Many covers of the song found similar success in the years to come. According to writers Marti Smiley Childs and Jeff March, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" was the first African song to top the US charts. The Tokens subsequently became music producers, and while their fame as performers waned—only landing their next top 40 US single four years later—they flourished in their new role. Among their productions was the Chiffons' "He's So Fine". Charts Weekly charts Year-end charts Certifications == Further commercial use ==

By the mid 2000s, "Mbube" had been recorded by over 150 artists worldwide and served a role in more than thirteen movies. Many are covers of the Tokens' version, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", which includes Robert John's, which rose to No. 3 in the US a decade later, and Tight Fit's, which topped the UK charts in 1982. Beyond the English-speaking world, a cover by Swedish pop group the Hounds became a large hit in the Nordic countries in 1967, and French and Japanese covers achieved chart success in the 1990s. Miriam Makeba performed "Mbube" at President John F. Kennedy's 1962 birthday. In 1994, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" rose to the spotlight when it featured in the Disney film The Lion King. The film would gross nearly $1 billion and produce many soundtrack CDs. It was later included in the 1997 staged musical of the same name, still the highest-grossing Broadway show of all time. The 2019 Lion King remake also used a version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" sung by Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner. Notable covers Karl Denver Karl Denver, born in Glasgow, Scotland, spent much of his youth at sea and eventually served in the Korean War. He was wounded; while recovering, he practised the guitar and grew interested in folk and country music. Upon settling in Lancashire, England, he performed in pubs and clubs. His hallmark piece was a cover of "Wimoweh", which Spencer Leigh of The Independent notes for its "octave-spanning acrobatics" and "electrifying" nature. It reached No. 4 in the UK and remains his best-known song. His solo efforts "took off", in music journalist Jon Blistein's words, when he covered the Tokens' "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" in 1971. It reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and sold over a million records. However, since Atlantic Records kept him from producing an album, John then broke from singing before returning in the late 1970s. In its review of the band's eponymous 1982 album, Pop Rescue notes the song's "tom-tom-laden drums and Tarzan-like vocals". Charts Weekly charts Year-end charts Certifications List of recordings that charted == Controversies and legal issues ==

1951–1990: Early conflict Conflict over songwriting credits and royalty payments has engulfed "Wimoweh" and "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" ever since their release. The earliest dispute dates to around 1951. Upon learning that Solomon Linda would not be granted songwriting royalties, Pete Seeger objected, insisting that Linda, as the "true" author of "Wimoweh", should receive his due. He directed his publisher to send Linda the royalties, at one point dispatching a $1,000 check himself. Linda's daughters later denied that consistent payments for "Wimoweh" had been made ever since the 1950s. Nonetheless, Seeger stated that "I never got author's royalties on 'Wimoweh'. ... I assumed [the song's publishers] were keeping the publisher's fifty percent and sending the rest". In 1971, The Richmond Organization acknowledged that the song was based on "Mbube", and since then, Linda's family has received royalty payments totalling 12.5 percent of "Wimoweh"'s overall earnings. The next dispute concerned the Tokens' revision. Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore, and George David Weiss credited "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" solely to themselves, thinking the Weavers' tune was based on traditional African music and hence could not be copyrighted, which was untrue. The dispute made its way to court a year later. Here, litigants representing The Richmond Organization argued that the 1961 permission was "inaccurate", and tried to expose Weiss for adapting Linda's "Mbube" without making due payments to Linda's family. The court eventually ruled in favour of Weiss' team, with Judge John Keenan declaring their adaptation of "Wimoweh" a separate composition. While Weiss' team retained rights over "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", the court ordered they send ten percent of performance royalties—profits made whenever the composition was broadcast—to Linda's family. By 1992, Abilene Music had acquired the rights to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". Early 2000s: Linda rediscovered In spite of the song's immense fame, Linda's family had earned very little in royalties, and Linda himself had been all but forgotten. Due to this, in 2000, South African journalist Rian Malan penned an essay for Rolling Stone which shed light on the origins of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". He told the story of "Mbube", its eventual rise to success, and the struggles faced by Linda's daughters, and concluded that "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" had earned some $15 million in royalties. Two years later, fellow South African François Verster composed a documentary about Linda and "Mbube", ''A Lion's Trail''. In writers Håvard Ovesen and Adam Haupt's view, it "seeks to obtain justice for a man marginalised by his status as a black African musician in a racist and exploitative environment". Both Malan's essay and Verster's documentary publicised Linda's history. Five of his eight children had died. But with Malan's article sparking public interest in their condition, they decided to act. They started publicly calling for the royalties from "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" they, in their view, were due. The South African government supported their cause, and the Gallo Record Company vowed to pay their legal fees. The family also demanded 6 million rand from three South African companies profiting from royalties. Owen Dean, a South African lawyer who steered their case, argued that they received some $15,000 in royalties from 1991 to 2000, roughly spanning the period of The Lion Kings success, while the song earned an estimated total of $15 million. "There has ... been a misappropriation of South African culture—the song is thought to be American", he said. It also maintained that Abilene Music, which held the US copyright to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", had given it the rights to use the song. Dean argued that Abilene Music was still liable for copyright infringement since under the Copyright Act 1911, the rights had reverted to Linda's heirs 25 years after his death. Billboard wrote in 2004 that depending on the outcome, the Lindas' effort could shift the fortunes of other South African artists who had unawaredly ceded their rights. The case garnered attention all over the world, and a trial was set for February 2006. But shortly before the opening date, it was settled. Abilene Music agreed to pay the family a lump sum representing royalties earned from 1987 onward and grant them a share of future income until 2017. While the amount was not made known, the family's lawyers claimed that the family "should be quite comfortable". Linda was recognized for his work and received a cowriting credit on "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". South Africa's East Coast Radio suggests that the case stirred on other families of artists, such as Bob Marley's, to consider legal action. In an act separate from the case in September 2004, The Richmond Organization admitted to not paying enough royalties to Linda's heirs for a version of "Mbube", promising to donate $3,000 annually and finance a memorial to Linda. Musicologist Carol A. Muller notes that Linda enjoyed no legal rights as a black South African in the pre-apartheid years of segregation. However, by the time his family filed a lawsuit, apartheid had been abolished, and South Africa become a democracy. In 2012, "Mbube" fell into the public domain in South Africa. According to a grandson of Linda, the family made approximately between $20,000 and $65,000 per year from "Lion Sleeps Tonight" while the settlement terms were active, while another source indicates that each daughter earned around $250,000 in the decade following the settlement. As of 2020, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" continued to cause legal conflict. The Linda family's settlement with Disney became void in 2017, keeping them from profiting from the 2019 film The Lion King that sampled an alternate version the song. Linda's grandson stated, "There was no courtesy of informing the family about inclusion of a new version of the song in the movie. And we are not convinced the family is not supposed to derive revenue from the use of a new version of 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight' and are currently in the process of procuring legal advice." Nonetheless, Rolling Stone estimates that Linda's heirs would have only received a few thousand dollars in royalties from the film. == Legacy ==

"Mbube" is one of the most commercially successful pop songs in history and according to some writers, the most famous melody born in Africa. It and its covers have been recorded by well over a hundred artists around the world: Glen Campbell, R.E.M., Bert Kaempfert, Yma Sumac, the Mahotella Queens, among others. More than thirteen movies sample it. The song's association with long-running racial and, in Ovesen and Haupt's view, capitalist, exploitation has been discussed in several articles and papers. Malan likens Linda's story of injustice with that of other black musicians such as Huddie Ledbetter, who "lost half of his publishing to his white 'patrons. Some scholars parallel the family's legal victory and eventual recognition of Linda's efforts with South Africa's move away from apartheid and into democracy. According to Muller, "Mbube" "[opened] the doors to South African music and musicians abroad in the twentieth century", as displayed by Paul Simon's 1986 album Graceland that incorporates elements from isicathamiya. The history of "Mbube" and the plight of Linda's daughters have been chronicled. Beyond Malan's essay and Vester's documentary, Beyoncé's 2020 musical film Black Is King in part came into being after she learned of how Linda was not recognised for his contributions to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". In the film, the original "Mbube" rather than the Tokens' version is used. In October 2025, user xerias_x sampled an excerpt of the song for an AI-generated video showing Donald Trump's face plastered over the body of a lion and the faces of various Democratic politicians imposed onto other animals. Trump shared a clip of this video on social media four months later, depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes while "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" plays in the background. ==References==