The Lion Sleeps Tonight

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"The Lion Sleeps Tonight"
Single by The Tokens
from the album The Lion Sleeps Tonight
A-side"Tina"
Released1961
Recorded1961
Genre
Length2:41
LabelRCA Victor
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Hugo & Luigi
The Tokens singles chronology
"Sincerely"
(1961)
"The Lion Sleeps Tonight"
(1961)
"B'wa Nina (Pretty Girl)"
(1962)
Audio
The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh) (Audio) at YouTube

"The Lion Sleeps Tonight" is a song originally written and recorded by Solomon Linda[1] under the title "Mbube" for the South African Gallo Record Company in 1939. Linda's original was written in Zulu, while the English version's lyrics were written by George David Weiss.

The song was covered internationally by many pop and folk revival artists in the 1950s and 1960s, including Henri Salvador, the Weavers, Pete Seeger, Jimmy Dorsey, Yma Sumac, Miriam Makeba, and the Kingston Trio.

In 1961, it became a number one hit in the United States as adapted in English with the best-known version by the doo-wop group the Tokens.

References[change | change source]

  1. Malan, Rian. "In the Jungle". Longform.org. Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 29 June 2020. Retrieved 29 May 2020.