The Lion Sleeps Tonight
1939 song by Solomon Linda and the Evening Birds
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Mbube"[a] is a popular song written and composed by the South African musician Solomon Linda in 1939. It was first published in 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 create "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", lending the song the name by which it is best known today.
| "Mbube" | |
|---|---|
![1939 Singer Bantu Records record of "Mbube", containing the company logo, the song's name, the artist's name, and other generic record information](#/media/File:"Mbube"_vinyl_record.jpg) 1939 Singer Bantu record | |
| Single by Solomon Linda's Original Evening Birds | |
| B-side | Ngi Hambiki[1] |
| Released | 1939 |
| Recorded | 1939 |
| Studio | Gallo Recording Studios |
| Genre | Isicathamiya |
| Length | 2:44 |
| Label | Gallo |
| Songwriter | Solomon Linda |
Linda, a southern African migrant worker, led the a cappella group the Evening Birds. In 1939, they improvised a retelling of a lion-hunting incident in Zulu that melded regional music with Western influences. The recording, "Mbube", brought Linda much fame across South Africa and steered the development of isicathamiya music. However, he had sold his rights to "Mbube" to the owner of his parent record company, Eric Gallo, for ten shillings,[b] unaware of what the transaction entailed. This kept him from earning royalties. The recording was then sent to a record label in the US and eventually landed in Pete Seeger's hands; his folk quartet the Weavers covered the song in 1951 as "Wimoweh".[c] Ten years later, the Tokens, a doo-wop group, encountered "Wimoweh". After changing the melody and adding English lyrics, they released their version named "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". It topped the US charts.
By the mid-2000s, some 150 artists around the world had covered the song. It had been included in Disney's The Lion King (1994) and earned the film an estimated $15 million in royalties. But Linda, who had died three decades earlier, was yet to reap recognition for his contribution to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" or receive songwriting credits. His descendants had earned very little and remained 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 wide legal effects, such as on British copyright law.
While global success has made "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" an iconic pop song, it is now associated with long-running racial exploitation. The song and Linda's history have been probed in numerous documentaries and are part of the inspiration for the 2020 film Black Is King.
Background and release
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Solomon Linda was born in rural Natal, southern Africa.[6] He followed the minstrel Virginia Jubilee Singers during his childhood as they toured South Africa and performed spirituals.[7] A migrant worker and beer hall singer,[8] he sang in a short-lived choir named the Evening Birds, founding another under the same name soon after the former's dissolution in 1933. The new group, comprising himself as soprano, Gilbert Madondo as alto, Boy Sibiya as tenor, and Samuel Mlangeni, Gideon Mkhize, and Owen Sikhakhane as basses,[9] performed a cappella on the weekends and quickly grew a local following;[10] working-class culture in South Africa flourished around this time as the nation's manufacturing industry grew.[6] After moving to Johannesburg, Linda started work as a packer at Eric Gallo's local record-pressing plant,[d] the only one in black Africa.[12] It was not long before the firm's talent scout noticed the Evening Birds and invited them to the recording studio.[13] Back then, record firms sought out Zulu close-harmony vocal music to appeal to migrant mineworkers.[14]
During their second session at Gallo's studio, in 1939, they attempted to record "Mbube",[15][a] accompanied by Peter Rezant on guitar, Emily Motsieloa on piano, and possibly Willie Gumede on banjo.[1] They finished it without rehearsal after three takes.[16] Impressed by the song, Gallo had it made into 78 rpm records. It then aired on the rediffusion, a landline that broadcast music and news across black neighbourhoods.[15]
Composition
Performed in four-part harmony with Mlangeni, Mkhize, and Sikhakhane on bass, Madondo and Sibiya on middle tones, and Linda on soprano,[17] "Mbube" is sung in a call and response format: the phrases of each section overlap. It follows a cyclical structure.[18] 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).[19]
Journalist Sharon LaFraniere describes the melody as "tender ... almost childish in its simplicity".[20] 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."[16] Of special interest to commentators are the song's final few seconds, where Linda breaks into a brief howl that Malan describes as "a haunting skein of fifteen notes".[21] This would be the melodic basis for the Tokens' cover.[22]
The lyrics, written in Zulu,[23] are said to document an episode of Linda's childhood when he chased a lion while herding cattle.[24][e]
Yekela yanini, yebo liyaduma amathamsanqa.
Mbube, ha, wembube.[f]
Mbube, mama.
The chorus "wembube"[f] is repeated throughout.[30] "Mbube" heavily uses Western influences introduced by missionaries and white singing troupes, among which is the four-part harmony; as music historian Veit Erlmann asserts, the main body "displays only a few features which can be said to be rooted in traditional performance practice".[31] These Western elements, argues journalist Lior Phillips, "gave 'Mbube' a chance globally".[32] 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.[33] The vocal lines are meant to evoke tin whistles typical of South African street music.[32]
Aftermath
"Mbube" achieved widespread success. With over 100,000 copies of the song sold in Africa over the next nine years, Erlmann considers it the first South African "hit".[34] According to Malan, Linda became "a legend in the Zulu subculture", and his band went on to dominate all-night song competitions.[35] Still, he did not profit; he had sold his rights to "Mbube" to Eric Gallo for ten shillings[b] just after the recording session.[36] Gallo also paid him the equivalent of $2 for the first run of a few hundred records.[32] Seeing that Linda could not read and did not understand royalties, a South African court would deem this deal unfair by 2006.[37] The Evening Birds remained prominent performers until their disbanding in 1948.[38] But Linda never attained wealth or fortune; he lived in a house with a dirt floor coated in cow manure and suffered the death of one of his children from malnutrition.[20] In 1959, he collapsed onstage, which doctors ruled a result of kidney failure,[39] and died three years later aged 53.[40] At the time of his death, his bank account held roughly $40 in today's money.[41][h] His family could not afford a tombstone.[44]
"Mbube" defined contemporary South African music and the isicathamiya genre;[45] isicathamiya is a form of a cappella choral song stemming from traditional Zulu music "rehearsed and performed after hours in migrant workers' hostels" along with Western, Christian influences, writes Gwen Ansell.[46] The word mbube, now shorthand for male a cappella choral singing in South Africa,[47][i] lent its name to a distinct music style, a style which anthropologist David B. Coplan argues "appealed across the class spectrum, melodised a growing African nationalism, created nostalgia for a lost society, and fused urban and rural values".[48] In Erlmann's words, "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.[49]
The Weavers version
| "Wimoweh" | |
|---|---|
![1951 black and gold Decca record of "Wimoweh", containing the company logo, the song's name, the artists' names, and other generic record information; it is credited to the Weavers as well as "Gordon Jenkins and His Chorus and Orchestra"](#/media/File:"Wimoweh"_vinyl_record.jpg) 1951 Decca vinyl record | |
| Single by the Weavers | |
| Released | December 1951 |
| Recorded | c. 1951 |
| Genre | Folk |
| Length | 2:59 |
| Label | Folkways[50] |
| Songwriter | Paul Campbell (pseudonym)[50] |
| Audio | |
| The Weavers – Wimoweh on YouTube | |
| Live version | |
| Wimoweh (Live At Carnegie Hall, 1955) on YouTube | |
Some years later, Gallo sent a bundle of records to Decca Records in the United States.[51] 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.[52] A penniless banjo player, Seeger became a musician after quitting university and acquainting himself with popular songs of the Great Depression.[53] "Mbube" intrigued him, and he promptly transcribed it word for word, although he misheard the chorus as wimoweh.[54] "What really grabbed Pete", writes Jesse Jarnow in his Weavers biography, "was the high, wordless falsetto that floated on top and—most especially—where it landed, in a secondary melody, sad and sweet".[55]
Seeger convened the band at the Village Vanguard to record it. He tried 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 falsettos.[56] As Malan states, their recording "was faithful to the Zulu original in almost all respects save for the finger-popping rhythm".[57] 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".[58]
In December 1951, the Weavers released "Wimoweh".[59] Seeger later said it was "just about my favorite song to sing for the next forty years".[52] Shortly after its release, Gallo sold "Mbube" to the American Richmond Organization in exchange for the rights to administer "Wimoweh" in some bush territories.[60] Even though records of "Mbube" contained the words African Music Research Copyright Control, Richmond claimed it was a folk song.[58] All songwriting credits were thus given to the fictitious "Paul Campbell", a tactic enabling the Weavers to claim royalties on songs from the public domain even if "Mbube" was not in the public domain.[61] Such a practice was common then.[62] 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.[63] None went to Linda.[64]
"Wimoweh" reached No. 6 on the US charts,[j] 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.[66] Nevertheless, it became a Weavers standard.[67] The song's profile rose when they performed it at Carnegie Hall in 1957.[68] Jimmy Dorsey and the Kingston Trio recorded covers around this time.[69]
Charts
| Chart (1952) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Billboard chart[70][j] | 6 |
| US Cash Box Top 100[71] | 13 |
The Tokens version
| "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 1961 RCA single cover | ||||
| Single by the Tokens | ||||
| from the album The Lion Sleeps Tonight | ||||
| A-side | "Tina" | |||
| Released | October 1961 | |||
| Recorded | 1961 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 2:41 | |||
| Label | RCA Victor[73] | |||
| Songwriters |
| |||
| Producers |
| |||
| The Tokens singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Audio | ||||
| The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh) (Audio) on YouTube | ||||
| Audio sample | ||||
Malan writes that by the end of the 1950s, "almost everyone in America knew the basic refrain" of "Wimoweh".[74] After hearing a live Weavers performance of the song,[k] the Tokens, a teen doo-wop group from Brooklyn, decided to record their own version.[76] 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.[77] While their first two records, "When I Go to Sleep at Night/Dry Your Eyes" and "Sincerely", struggled commercially, their third would fare better.[78]
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".[79] He purged the song of its shrieks and hollers while leaving the chant unchanged and made Linda's final improvised notes the new tune.[75] Thirty-three words were added as English lyrics beginning with, "In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight".[80] Jarnow notes that the lyrics were based on "a vague understanding of ["Mbube"]'s title".[81] 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.[82][l] Accompanying them were an orchestra, a percussionist on timpani, and session musicians on guitar, drums and bass.[82] Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore produced the piece.[78] Ultimately, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" did not particularly enthrall the Tokens, and the song was released in October 1961 as a B-side.[84] Linda again received no credit.[85]
While the A-side "Tina" failed, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" surged to No. 1 in the US charts and in numerous other countries.[86] Many covers of the song found similar success in the years to come.[87] According to writers Marti Smiley Childs and Jeff March, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" was the first African song to top the US charts.[78] 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".[78]
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.[102] Many are covers of the Tokens' version, which includes Robert John's, rising to No. 3 in the US a decade later, and Tight Fit's, topping the UK charts in 1982.[103] 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.[104] Miriam Makeba performed "Mbube" at President John F. Kennedy's 1962 birthday.[105] In 1994, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" came into the spotlight when it featured in the Disney film The Lion King.[106] The film would gross nearly $1 billion and spawn numerous soundtrack CDs.[107] It was later included in the 1997 staged musical of the same name, still the highest-grossing Broadway show of all time.[108] The 2019 Lion King remake also used a version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" sung by Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner.[109]
Notable covers
Karl Denver
| "Wimoweh" | |
|---|---|
![1961 Decca record of Denver's "Wimoweh", with the company logo, the artist's and producer's names, and other generic information about the track over a blue background.](#/media/File:"Wimoweh"_(Karl_Denver)_vinyl_record.jpg) 1961 Decca vinyl record | |
| Single by Karl Denver | |
| from the album Wimoweh | |
| B-side | "Gypsy Davy"[110] |
| Released | late 1961[m] |
| Genre | Pop |
| Length | 2:30 |
| Label | Decca[111] |
| Songwriters |
|
| Producer | Jack Good[110] |
| Audio | |
| Wimoweh on YouTube | |
Karl Denver, born in Glasgow, Scotland, spent much of his youth at sea and eventually served in the Korean War.[112] He was wounded; while recovering, he practised the guitar and grew interested in folk and country music.[113] 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.[112] He claimed to have learned "Wimoweh" in South Africa as a seaman.[113] Denver's recording of "Wimoweh" was held off from being released until 1961, shortly after the Tokens' "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" came out.[114] It reached No. 4 in the UK and remains his best-known song.[112]
| Chart (1962) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| UK Singles (OCC)[111] | 4 |
Robert John
| "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 1971 Atlantic single sleeve | ||||
| Single by Robert John | ||||
| from the album Robert John | ||||
| B-side | "Janet"[115] | |||
| Released | 1971 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 2:32 | |||
| Label | Atlantic[117] | |||
| Songwriters |
| |||
| Producers | ||||
| Robert John singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Audio | ||||
| The Lion Sleeps Tonight on YouTube | ||||
As a child, Robert John sang with street-corner doo-wop groups; he first achieved chart success aged twelve. In the 1960s, he partnered with songwriter Michael Gately to pen the hit "If You Don't Want My Love" and other songs, some of which were written especially for other artists.[118] His solo efforts "took off", in music journalist Jon Blistein's words, when he covered the Tokens' "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" in 1971.[119] It reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and sold over a million records.[120] However, since Atlantic Records kept him from producing an album, John then broke from singing before returning in the late 1970s.[118]
Charts
Weekly charts
|
Year-end charts
|
Certifications
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United States (RIAA)[132] | Gold | 1,000,000^ |
|
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||
Flemming Jørgensen
| "Vimmersvej" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Bamses Venner | |
| Released | 1975 |
| Recorded | c. 1975 |
| Genre | Pop |
| Length | 2:53 |
| Label | Nordisk Copyright Bureau[133] |
| Songwriters |
|
| Producer | Jørgen Kleinert[134] |
| Official audio | |
| Vimmersvej on YouTube | |
| 2003 rerecording | |
| Vimmersvej 2 on YouTube | |
Flemming "Bamse" Jørgensen, leader of the band Bamses Venner, released a cover of the Tokens' "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" in 1975 with new Danish lyrics, which he reportedly wrote in ten minutes.[135] Named "Vimmersvej", it was a big success and proved Jørgensen's first and largest hit.[136] He duly paid the Tokens' publishers their share but remained unaware of Linda's role in creating "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".[137] Twenty-eight years on, in 2003, he learned about the song's history from a television programme covering Linda's daughters. Jørgensen and his band resented the fact that Linda's family had lost what they thought was their deserved money. To raise some of this lost money for them, he decided to record "Vimmersvej" anew; he could not redirect profits from the original "Vimmersvej" to Linda's family.[138] He wished for Linda's daughters to sing on his recording, and two of them eventually did. The new song came out in March 2003; its earnings, totalling about 40,000 kroner by 2016, were sent to Linda's three daughters.[139][n] According to Danish journalist Jan Eriksen (2016), Jørgensen was the only musician out of the 150 or so who covered "Mbube", or its offspring, to make amends to Linda's family.[133] In 2018, a small side road in the Danish town of Thisted was renamed Vimmersvej, in his honour.[140]
Charts
| Chart (1975–1976) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Danish (IFPI Danmark)[134] | 1 |
Tight Fit
| "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 1982 Jive single cover | ||||
| Single by Tight Fit | ||||
| from the album Tight Fit | ||||
| B-side | "I'm Dancing in the Street"[141] | |||
| Released | c. January 1982[142] | |||
| Genre | Pop | |||
| Length | 3:08 | |||
| Label | Jive[143] | |||
| Songwriters |
| |||
| Producer | Tim Friese-Greene[143] | |||
| Tight Fit singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Music video | ||||
| "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" on YouTube | ||||
Tight Fit's cover of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" was the UK's fourth best-selling single in 1982. That year, their rendition of "Fantasy Island" was also one of the best-selling UK singles.[144] In its review of the band's eponymous 1982 album, Pop Rescue notes the song's "tom-tom-laden drums and Tarzan-like vocals".[145] Tom Ewing of Freaky Trigger describes it as "a panto season singalong" and theorised that producer Tim Friese-Greene was inspired by the recent successes of Adam Ant and Bow Wow Wow to rush-produce "an African drums cash-in" single.[146]
Charts
Weekly charts
|
Year-end charts
|
Certifications
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom (BPI)[163] | Gold | 500,000^ |
|
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||
List of recordings that charted
| A cover of Linda's "Mbube" | |
| A cover of the Weavers' "Wimoweh" | |
| A cover of the Tokens' "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" | |
| A cover, direct or indirect, of Gloria Lasso's "Le lion est mort ce soir"[o] |
| Year | Title Artist |
Country of origin | Peak chart positions | Notes | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AUL | AUT | BEL (Wa) | CAN | DEN | FIN | FRA | GER | ICE | NLD | SWE (KV) | SWE (TiT) | SWI | UK | US | ||||
| 1951 | "Wimoweh" The Weavers |
United States | See § The Weavers version | |||||||||||||||
| 1961 | "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" The Tokens |
United States | See § The Tokens version | |||||||||||||||
| "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" Karl Denver |
United Kingdom | See § Karl Denver | ||||||||||||||||
| 1962 | "Le lion est mort ce soir" Henri Salvador |
France | —— | —— | 3 | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | [164] [o] |
| 1966 | "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" The Townsmen |
Canada | —— | —— | —— | 70 | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | [165] |
| 1967 | "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" The Hounds |
Sweden | —— | —— | —— | —— | 8 | 7 | —— | —— | —— | —— | 1 | 1 | —— | —— | —— | [166] |
| 1968 | "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" Love Machine |
Australia | 26 | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | [167] |
| 1971 | "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" Robert John |
United States | See § Robert John | |||||||||||||||
| 1972 | "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" Dave Newman |
United Kingdom | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | 34 | —— | [168] |
| 1975 | "Vimmersvej" Flemming Jørgensen |
Denmark | See § Flemming Jørgensen | |||||||||||||||
| 1982 | "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" Tight Fit |
United Kingdom | See § Tight Fit | |||||||||||||||
| 1986 | "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" The Nylons |
Canada | —— | —— | —— | 91 | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | [169] |
| 1992 | "Le lion est mort ce soir" Pow woW |
France | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | 4 | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | [170] |
| 1993 | "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" R.E.M. |
United States | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | 2 | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | [171] [p] |
| 2000 | "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" Jungle Rumble |
United Kingdom | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | 80 | —— | [173] |
| 2003 | "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" The Cooldown Café ft. Gerard Joling |
Netherlands | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | 82 | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | [174] |
| 2004 | "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" Daniel Küblböck |
Germany | —— | 29 | —— | —— | —— | —— | —— | 7 | —— | —— | —— | —— | 37 | —— | —— | [175] |
Controversies and legal issues
1951–1990: Early conflict
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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 cheque himself.[176] Linda's daughters later denied that consistent payments for "Wimoweh" had been made ever since the 1950s.[177] 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".[178] 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.[179]
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.[178] As the song was achieving widespread success, Howard Richmond insisted that the trio cede publishing rights back to the Weavers. They complied, and the Tokens retained full songwriting credits.[39]
However, the conflict was not resolved. In 1989, the copyright on "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" was about to expire, and Weiss demanded Richmond and Brackman pay him and his fellow songwriters a generous bonus lest he renew the song's copyright without crediting them at all. Richmond and Brackman accused Weiss' team of plagiarising the Weavers' recording, but they retorted that they had received permission to adapt the song in 1961.[180] The dispute made its way to court a year later.[181] 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.[182] The court eventually ruled in favour of Weiss' team, with Judge John Keenan declaring their adaptation of "Wimoweh" a separate composition.[183] 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.[184] By 1992, Abilene Music had acquired the rights to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".[185]
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.[186] Earnings from covers of the Tokens' version were funnelled into the American publishers since theirs was taken to be an original recording.[187] Due to this,[188] in 2000, South African journalist Rian Malan penned an essay for Rolling Stone which shed light on the origins of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".[189] 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.[190] Two years later, fellow South African François Verster directed a documentary about Linda and "Mbube", A Lion's Trail.[191] 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".[192] Both Malan's essay and Verster's documentary publicised Linda's history.[18]
2004–2019: The Lion King
It's the story of a song we all know, the impoverished Zulu migrant worker who wrote it, the musicians and record companies who raked in millions for it, and the almost 70 years it has taken for his family to see justice done.
At the turn of the century, Linda's family was still desperately poor, living in what BBC News described as "a tiny township house of three rooms, an outside toilet, and an asbestos roof without a ceiling".[194] Five of his eight children had died.[195] But with Malan's article sparking public interest in their condition,[196] 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.[194] Some time later, in July 2004, they sued Disney for 10 million rand for using the song in The Lion King.[197][q][r] The family also demanded 6 million rand from three South African companies profiting from royalties.[200][s] 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 King's success, while the song earned an estimated total of $15 million.[202] "There has ... been a misappropriation of South African culture—the song is thought to be American", he said.[201]
However, Linda's wife, who was illiterate, and their daughters signed away the rights to the song on three separate occasions complicated their case.[20] Disney pledged to fight the suit, responding to the family's accusations of copyright violations thus: "Solomon Linda's widow assigned all rights in 'Mbube' to [a music publisher] more than 20 years ago and did so with the assistance of legal counsel."[203] 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.[201] While acknowledging that Disney's statement was correct,[204] 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.[205] Billboard wrote in 2004 that depending on the outcome, the Lindas' effort could shift the fortunes of other South African artists who had unknowingly ceded their rights. The case garnered attention all over the world, and a trial was set for February 2006.[206]
But shortly before the opening date, it was settled.[207] 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.[208][t] While the amount was not made known, the family's lawyers claimed that the family "should be quite comfortable".[20][u] The profits were to be collected in a trust.[209] Linda was recognised for his work and received a cowriting credit on "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".[109] According to Dean, the settlement allowed that:
- The Linda heirs will receive payment for past uses of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and an entitlement to future royalties from its worldwide use.
- "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" is acknowledged as derived from "Mbube".
- Solomon Linda is acknowledged as a co-composer of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and will be designated as such in the future.
- A trust will be formed to administer the heirs' copyright in "Mbube" and to receive on their behalf the payments due out of the use of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".[207]
The case set a precedent that under British copyright law, "heirs of authors who are not benefiting from the copyrighted works of their forbears [could] obtain remuneration arising from the exploitation of such works", not just in South Africa, but in any former British colony where the Copyright Act was law.[207] Before the settlement, the court had acknowledged that Linda probably sold "Mbube" under unfair circumstances.[210] South Africa's East Coast Radio suggests that the case spurred on other families of artists, such as Bob Marley's, to consider legal action.[211]
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.[212] 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 had become a democracy.[213] In 2012, "Mbube" fell into the public domain in South Africa.[214] According to a grandson of Linda, the family made approximately between $20,000 and $65,000 per year from "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" while the settlement terms were active,[109] whereas another source indicates that each daughter earned around $250,000 in the decade following the settlement.[85]
As of 2020, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" continued to cause legal conflict.[214] 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."[109] Nonetheless, Rolling Stone estimates that Linda's heirs would have only received a few thousand dollars in royalties from the film.[109]
Legacy
A Zulu on the far side of the planet writes a 13-note melody that flies off and takes root in the brain of a radical American folksinger who turns it into 'Wimoweh', which in turn gives birth to 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight', which goes through about 12 hit cycles over the next 60 years. ... I love that part of the story, the improbable cultural transfers and misunderstandings, the strange musical mutations, the rich mix of characters ... But that's a story about music. The parallel story about money has been less inspiring.
"Mbube" is one of the most commercially successful pop songs in history, and according to some writers, the most famous melody born in Africa.[216] 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.[217] More than thirteen movies sample it.[20] Malan additionally describes the Tokens' "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" as an "immortal pop epiphany".[87]
However, its legacy is more complicated. Because of the copyright issues surrounding it, journalists David Browne and Simon Robinson deem "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" one of pop music's most contentious tunes.[218] 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.[219] Malan likens Linda's story of injustice to that of other black musicians such as Huddie Ledbetter, who "lost half of his publishing to his white 'patrons'".[220] At the same time, he indicates that Linda had sold "Mbube" by choice and that the deal was legal.[220]
Some scholars draw a parallel between the family's legal victory and eventual recognition of Linda's efforts with South Africa's move away from apartheid and into democracy.[221] 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 which incorporates elements from isicathamiya.[18] Ovesen and Haupt's view is more nuanced. They contend that while justice ultimately seems to have been served for Linda, "the power structures that enable the continuation of huge socio-economic disparities are still in place".[222]
The history of "Mbube" and the plight of Linda's daughters have been chronicled. Beyond Malan's essay and Verster's documentary,[191] they were covered in the 2019 Netflix documentary ReMastered: The Lion's Share.[223] Beyoncé's 2020 musical film Black Is King in part came into being after she learned 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.[224]
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.[225] 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.[226]