The Lion Sleeps Tonight by The Tokens

About

"Mbube" is a popular song originally written and composed by the South African musician Solomon Linda in 1939. It was first published in the Union of South Africa and made its way to the United States a decade later. In 1961, the Tokens adapted the melody and added English lyrics to produce "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", lending the song the name by which it is best known today. Linda, a Zulu migrant worker, 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 the Union of 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, Eric Gallo, for ten shillings, unaware of what the transaction implied. This kept Linda from earning 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, a doo-wop group, 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, who had died three decades earlier, 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. The case drew international attention and bore wider legal implications, such as on British copyright law. While global commercial success transformed "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" into an iconic pop song, the song is now associated with long-running 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.