Seeger changed Linda's words, "Uyimbube, Uyimbube," to "Wimoweh" and recorded it with his group, The Weavers, in an uplifting interpretation arranged and orchestrated by Gordon Jenkins. The song reached the ears of Pete Seeger through folklorist Alan Lomax. Copies were shipped to England as 10" 78 rpm discs and became a word-of-mouth hit, selling more than 100,000 copies by 1948. During their second session, "Mbube" was recorded in four takes. With Linda's soprano lead vocals setting the pace, the group became one of the pioneers of isicathamiya, an energetic style of vocalizing characterized by doubled bass voices and exciting choreography.ĭiscovered by a talent scout in 1938, the Evening Birds and producer Griffith Motsieloa recorded several songs in Eric Gallo's recording studio. Within two years, the singers had evolved into the more professional group, Solomon Linda And The Evening Birds. Shortly after moving to Johannesburg, in the mid-'30s, Linda began singing during weekends with an acapella group. Linda's earliest musical inspiration came when he heard popular Black American vocalist Orpheus McAdoo performing with his group, The Virginia Jubilee Singers, at Gordon Memorial School in the South African village of Msinga. It wasn't until recently that Linda's estate received substantial royalties from the song. According to a major article published in the issue of Rolling Stone, Linda's widow was left so poor that she was unable to purchase a headstone for his grave. Linda - who was recorded one pound cash for the song - never benefited from the song's success. Among the many films that have featured the song are Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Disney's The Lion King. Whether named "Mbube," "Wimoweh," or "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," the song has been recorded by more than 150 artists including Jimmy Dorsey, The Kingston Trio, The Spinners, The Tremeloes, Glen Campbell, Brian Eno, They Might Be Giants, Miriam Makeba, R.E.M., Chet Atkins, The Nylons, and Manu Dibango. Subsequent hit versions were recorded by Robert John in 1972 and Tight Fit in 1982. With lyrics by George David Weiss, the song became a chart-topping pop hit as "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" for The Tokens in 1961. Although Linda recorded the first version with his group, The Evening Birds, in 1939, the song became an internationally-recognized classic when it was renamed "Wimoweh" and recorded by Pete Seeger and The Weavers in 1948. The second is that the (mostly wordless) falsetto vocals were improvised by Solomon Linda (over wonderfully sonorous and rhythmically compelling bass riffs) but it was not until near the end (about 2:22) of this, the third, take that he was inspired to produce the melody that is now universally associated with the words “In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight”.Solomon Linda is best remembered as the writer of "Mbube" (translated as "The Lion"), one of the most successful songs to come out of South Africa. Rather like King Arthur, there was a folk belief that Shaka is not dead but only sleeping and one day he will return to liberate his people from their colonial oppressors. The first is that the “lion” referred to in the song is none other than the famous Zulu king Shaka Zulu (the subject of this famous poem) who acquired legendary status after his death. There are two other fascinating things about this tune. The song was also used in the Disney film The Lion King without any royalties being paid, leading to a lawsuit brought by Linda’s surviving relatives (which was settled out of court). Solomon Linda sold the rights to the Gallo record company for just ten shillings in 1949 so never received significant income from the worldwide sales. Since then it has had more cover versions than I’ve had hot dinners, mostly with an English title The Lion Sleeps Tonight or Wimoweh, a not-entirely-accurate phonetic attempt to render the isiZulu phrase uyimbube (“you are a lion”) which occurs in the song. The song Mbube by South African singer and composer Solomon Linda was first performed in 1939 and was an immediate hit in his native land. To cut a long story short I found this, and it’s been in my head ever since so I thought I’d share it here. I couldn’t identify some of the sounds so when I came inside I started googling about for various combinations of “birds singing in the evening”. The other evening it was warm enough for me to sit out in the garden, listening to the birdsong until it got dark. And now for something completely different…
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