The Tokens were from Brooklyn, NY, and originally had singer/songwriter Neil Sedaka as one of their members. Many people today know the song via Walt Disney’s The Lion King. In 1961, the version by the doo-wop group The Tokens went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #7 on the R&B Chart. There were many covers, including those by Jimmy Dorsey, The Weavers, Miriam Makeba, and The Kingston Trio. Also known as “Wimoweh” or “Wimba Way,” this song was originally recorded by South African Solomon Linda with the Evening Birds in 1939 and called “Mbube.” The lyrics were in Zulu. See also: "In the Jungle" by Rian Malan in Rolling Stone (May 25, 2000-available on ).The golden oldie “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” by The Tokens, a doo wop style vocal group, has an interesting history. In "The Lion King" Broadway production, it's the only non-Disney song performed.Įxcerpted from "Behind The Hits: The Lion Sleeps Tonight" by Bob Shannon ( ). In the '80s there was a version by Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Before that Miriam Makeba, Jimmy Dorsey and Manu DiBango, amongst others performed and recorded "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". Late in 1971, exactly ten years after the first "Lion" captured the American audience's ear, he began roaming the airwaves once more, in a note-for-note duplicate by Robert John that reached the Top 10 and sold a million copies again. After their smashing success, the Tokens' career took a different course: they began producing records, not singing them ("He's So Fine", "Tie a Yellow Ribbon", "Knock Three Times"). Opera singer Anita Darien supplied the high soprano during the sax solo and drummer Panama Francis played brushes on newspapers piled on a drum box. The Tokens originated in a Brooklyn high school with Neil Sedaka as the lead singer (but he's not on the record). "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" reached the #1 position in the charts in 1961, thanks to romanticized version of The Tokens (on the RCA label). It would be a long time before Linda or his heirs received any substantial royalties from a song that is perhaps one of the most well-known worldwide hits. However, when the Kingston Trio released their version in 1959 (on the From the Hungry i LP) the writer credit was listed as "traditional adapted and arranged by Campbell-Linda". Linda was not credited as the writer that honor went to "Paul Campbell", a pseudonym for the group. The tune really took off in the Weavers' live version at Carnegie Hall in 1957. It was basically an instrumental with the group singing "wimoweh" over and over, with other vocal flourishes. The Weavers (led by Gordon Jenkins' Orchestra) adapted it into a Top 15 hit in 1952, as "Wimoweh". Historian and musicologist Alan Lomax took the record to Pete Seeger, of the American folk group the Weavers. Linda recorded the tune in 1939 with his group the Evening Birds, and it was so popular that Zulu choral music became known as "Mbube Music". Linda had written it based on a boyhood experience chasing lions that were stalking the family's cattle. "Mbube" was a big hit in what is now Swaziland it sold nearly 100,000 copies in the 1940s by its originator, South African Solomon Linda. We-de-de-de, de-de-de-de-de de, we-um-um-a-way, we-de-de-de, de-de-de-de-de de, we-um-um-a-way." Whoa Whoa whoa um-a-way, weeeeeeeee deeeeeee, we-um-um-a-way. Hush my darling, don't fear my darling, the lion sleeps tonight. Weeeeeeeee de-de-de-de, we-um-um-a-way, weeeeeeeee a la-la-la, we-um-um-a-way. Near the village, the quiet village, the lion sleeps tonight. Near the village, the peaceful village, the lion sleeps tonight. Weeeeeeeee de-de-de-de, we-um-um-a-way, weeeeeeeee de-de-de-de, we-um-um-a-way. In the jungle, the quiet jungle, the lion sleeps tonight. In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight.
A wimoweh, a-wimoweh, a-wimoweh, a wimoweh, a wimoweh, a-wimoweh, aA-wimoweh, a wimoweh, a wimoweh, a-wimoweh, a-wimoweh, a wimoweh, a wimoweh, a-wimoweh, a-wimoweh, a wimoweh.
"We-de-de-de, we-de-de-de-de de, we-um-um-a-way, we-de-de-de, de-de-de-de-de de, we-um-um-a-way. "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" is actually an African doo-wop song, originally titled "Mbube" (pronounced EEM-boo-beh), which means "Lion", and it was sung with a haunting Zulu refrain that sounded, to English-speaking people, like "wimoweh".
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