Mbube Solomon Linda’s Original Evening Birds ’39 Singer 829
This song, also known as “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” or “Wimba Way” was actually written originally as “Mbube.” Solomon Linda wrote and recorded it with the Evening Birds for the South African Gallo Record Company in 1939. Originally composed in Zulu, it was adapted and covered internationally by many 1950s pop and folk revival artists, including The Weavers, Miriam Makeba, The Kingston Trio and The Tokens (1961) who had a Number 1 hit with it. It became a huge hit in the mid-nineties when licensed to Walt Disney for use in the film, “The Lion King” and its spin-offs, prompting a lawsuit in 2004 on behalf of the impoverished descendants of Solomon Linda.
In this video it is sung by Ugandan a capella group Aba Taana at an open-air concert at Riga, Latvia, during the World Choir Games in July 2014. There are a few seconds missing at the end – as our camera battery ran out!
Lyrics of the song can be found here: http://www.raymondfolk.com/page/Wimoweh
Solomon Popoli Linda, also known as Solomon Ntsele, was a South African musician, singer and composer best known as the composer of the song “Mbube”, which later became the popular music success “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”, and gave its name to the Mbube style of isicathamiya a cappella later popularized by Ladysmith Black Mambazo