Fortunately a provision in a 1911 British imperial copyright law states that all rights to a song revert to the composerвЂ™s estate 25 years after their death. Solomon Linda died in poverty from kidney disease in 1962 at age 53.

To complete its appearance in every decade, the Baha Men sampled Tight FitвЂ™s version in their 2001 Top 20 hit You All Dat. In 1994 the song was featured in the award winning Disney film, The Lion King, for which Tim Rice and Elton John supplied the rest of the music. However, none of them sang on the records вЂ“ the vocals on The Lion Sleeps Tonight were provided by former City Boy drummer Roy Ward. Denise had failed an audition for Bucks Fizz, but all three were good looking and were employed for that purpose. For the next single, they needed a new image and so recruited Steve Grant, Julie Harris and Denise Gyngell. The follow-up was another medley, the imaginatively titled, Back to the 60s вЂ“ Part II but that missed the Top 30 altogether. Their first single, Back to the 60s was a medley of 60s hits and reached number four. Tight Fit were originally a group of session musicians, formed in 1981. British singer, Karl Denver, under the title, Wimoweh, made the top five in 1962 and Dave Newman, who decided to use both titles, had a minor hit in 1972. The TokensвЂ™ version topped the US chart for three weeks and made number 11 in the UK. Hugo & Luigi liked the song but decided it needed new lyrics so, with George David Weiss, who had written songs for Elvis, they added a 16-word translation and copyrighted it as a new composition, The Lion Sleeps Tonight. In 1960 the American doo-wop group, The Tokens, auditioned for producers Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore at RCA Records and did so with Wimoweh. Wimoweh is what the refrain sounded like to a non-native, but it has no meaning and is the English equivalent to shooby-dooby-dooвЂ™s. In doing so, they added their collective pen name, Paul Campbell to the credits. Their version was based on MakebaвЂ™s, but changed the title to Wimoweh after what Seeger said he had heard it as. Miriam Makeba recorded a version in the 50s, followed by the America folk group The Weavers which were led by Seeger. They were actually saying Uyimbube, which means вЂyouвЂ™re a LionвЂ™. He thought they were saying Wimoweh on the original, and thatвЂ™s what he wrote down and how it was recorded in English.

Folk singer Pete Seeger got a hold of it and started working on an English version. That whole evolution started with LindaвЂ™s Mbube.ДЄround 1948, the South African record company sent a copy to Decca Records in the US, hoping to get it distributed there. Township jive became a whole movement, nurturing famous exponents as Ladysmith Black Mambazo, known for their contribution on Paul SimonвЂ™s Graceland album.

Singing was their only way to express themselves musically, so thatвЂ™s what they did. Musical instruments were forbidden for black workers in the townships as they might be used as weapons. Linda called it вЂa song for girlsвЂ™ because of the high vocals required. All Zulu choral music was even labelled Mbube Music. It is a Zulu song created in Ladysmith in Zululand, which is now called Swaziland. The same year Solomon, who was born Solomon Linda Ntsele and worked as a cleaner and record packer for Gallo records, sold the song to record producer and label owner Eric Gallo for 10 shillings and hence received no royalties for the song. The Lion Sleeps Tonight started life in 1939 as Mbube (pronounced Eem-boom-beh), and was first recorded by Solomon LindaвЂ™s Original Evening Birds. But over the years people have added their own name through their own different interpretations of the song. Looking at the writing credits on many versions of The Lion Sleeps Tonight you will see the names Hugo Peretti / Luigi Creatore / George David Weiss / Solomon Linda / Paul Campbell and may wonder how it took five people write a fairly simple song.

Karl denver wimoweh lyrics