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The Lion Sleeps Tonight
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The Lion Sleeps Tonight
"The Lion Sleeps Tonight" is a popular song originally written and composed by the South African musician Solomon Linda in 1939; it was first published as "Mbube". It made its way to the United States a decade later. In 1961, the Tokens, a doo-wop group, adapted the melody and added English lyrics to produce "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". Their version spawned many covers and featured in major films. During the 2000s, it became the subject of publicised legal conflict between Linda's family and entertainment corporations over royalty payments.
A Zulu migrant worker, Linda led the a capella group the Evening Birds. In 1939, without rehearsal, they recorded "Mbube", which fused traditional Zulu musical elements with Western influences. The recording was then released in South Africa to widespread popularity. It made Linda a local celebrity and shaped the development of the isicathamiya genre. However, he had sold his rights to "Mbube" to the owner of his parent record company for ten shillings, unaware of what the transaction implied. This kept Linda from earning any royalties. The recording of "Mbube" was then sent to a record label in the US, and upon being unearthed, it passed onto Pete Seeger of the folk group the Weavers. They covered the song in 1951 as "Wimoweh".
A decade later, the Tokens encountered "Wimoweh" and decided to record their own version. After adapting the melody and adding English lyrics, they released "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", although Linda did not receive any credit. It topped the US charts. By the mid-2000s, around 150 artists across the world had covered the song, and it had been included in the 1994 Disney film The Lion King, earning an estimated $15 million in royalties. Linda, then long deceased, was yet unrecognised for his contributions to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". His descendants had earned very little and were left destitute. Emboldened, they filed a lawsuit against Disney for copyright violation in 2004. Within two years, they reached an out-of-court settlement with Abilene Music, in which the firm agreed to pay the family a lump sum for past royalties and offer them a share of future revenue.
While global commercial success transformed "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" into an "immortal pop epiphany," its background, particularly Linda's perceived lack of recognition and fortune in his lifetime, is now deemed an example of racial exploitation. The song and Linda's history has been probed in numerous documentaries and is the part-inspiration of the 2020 film Black Is King.
Solomon Linda was born in rural Natal, in southern Africa. A migrant worker and beer hall singer, he sang in a short-lived choir named the Evening Birds, which dissolved in 1933. Soon after, he founded a new group under the same name. 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 following. After moving to Johannesburg, Linda became a packer at Eric Gallo's local record-pressing plant, the only one in black Africa. 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 owing to its appeal to migrant mineworkers.
The Evening Birds recorded multiple songs at Gallo's studio, and during their second session, in 1939, they achieved their breakthrough. The song, "Mbube", was finished without prior rehearsal after three takes. Performed in four-part harmony, with Mlangeni, Mkhize, and Sikhakhane on bass, Madondo and Sibiya on middle tones, and Linda on soprano, it is sung in a call and response format: the phrases of each section overlap with each other. It follows a cyclical structure. The melody contains three chords, and the chord progression borrows from the marabi harmonic cycle predominant in twentieth-century South African music (I-IV-I6/4-V7-I). Also featured in the recording are Peter Rezant on guitar, Emily Motsieloa on piano, and possibly Willie Gumede on banjo.
The journalist Sharon LaFraniere describes the melody as "tender … almost childish in its simplicity." In the 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." Of particular interest to commentators are the song's final few seconds, where Linda breaks out into a brief howl, "a haunting skein of fifteen notes." This would later become the melodic basis for "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".
The lyrics, written in Zulu, are said to document an episode of Linda's childhood when he chased a lion while herding cattle.
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The Lion Sleeps Tonight
"The Lion Sleeps Tonight" is a popular song originally written and composed by the South African musician Solomon Linda in 1939; it was first published as "Mbube". It made its way to the United States a decade later. In 1961, the Tokens, a doo-wop group, adapted the melody and added English lyrics to produce "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". Their version spawned many covers and featured in major films. During the 2000s, it became the subject of publicised legal conflict between Linda's family and entertainment corporations over royalty payments.
A Zulu migrant worker, Linda led the a capella group the Evening Birds. In 1939, without rehearsal, they recorded "Mbube", which fused traditional Zulu musical elements with Western influences. The recording was then released in South Africa to widespread popularity. It made Linda a local celebrity and shaped the development of the isicathamiya genre. However, he had sold his rights to "Mbube" to the owner of his parent record company for ten shillings, unaware of what the transaction implied. This kept Linda from earning any royalties. The recording of "Mbube" was then sent to a record label in the US, and upon being unearthed, it passed onto Pete Seeger of the folk group the Weavers. They covered the song in 1951 as "Wimoweh".
A decade later, the Tokens encountered "Wimoweh" and decided to record their own version. After adapting the melody and adding English lyrics, they released "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", although Linda did not receive any credit. It topped the US charts. By the mid-2000s, around 150 artists across the world had covered the song, and it had been included in the 1994 Disney film The Lion King, earning an estimated $15 million in royalties. Linda, then long deceased, was yet unrecognised for his contributions to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". His descendants had earned very little and were left destitute. Emboldened, they filed a lawsuit against Disney for copyright violation in 2004. Within two years, they reached an out-of-court settlement with Abilene Music, in which the firm agreed to pay the family a lump sum for past royalties and offer them a share of future revenue.
While global commercial success transformed "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" into an "immortal pop epiphany," its background, particularly Linda's perceived lack of recognition and fortune in his lifetime, is now deemed an example of racial exploitation. The song and Linda's history has been probed in numerous documentaries and is the part-inspiration of the 2020 film Black Is King.
Solomon Linda was born in rural Natal, in southern Africa. A migrant worker and beer hall singer, he sang in a short-lived choir named the Evening Birds, which dissolved in 1933. Soon after, he founded a new group under the same name. 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 following. After moving to Johannesburg, Linda became a packer at Eric Gallo's local record-pressing plant, the only one in black Africa. 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 owing to its appeal to migrant mineworkers.
The Evening Birds recorded multiple songs at Gallo's studio, and during their second session, in 1939, they achieved their breakthrough. The song, "Mbube", was finished without prior rehearsal after three takes. Performed in four-part harmony, with Mlangeni, Mkhize, and Sikhakhane on bass, Madondo and Sibiya on middle tones, and Linda on soprano, it is sung in a call and response format: the phrases of each section overlap with each other. It follows a cyclical structure. The melody contains three chords, and the chord progression borrows from the marabi harmonic cycle predominant in twentieth-century South African music (I-IV-I6/4-V7-I). Also featured in the recording are Peter Rezant on guitar, Emily Motsieloa on piano, and possibly Willie Gumede on banjo.
The journalist Sharon LaFraniere describes the melody as "tender … almost childish in its simplicity." In the 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." Of particular interest to commentators are the song's final few seconds, where Linda breaks out into a brief howl, "a haunting skein of fifteen notes." This would later become the melodic basis for "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".
The lyrics, written in Zulu, are said to document an episode of Linda's childhood when he chased a lion while herding cattle.
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