The Lion Sleeps Tonight (South Africa)

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recorded @ Opera House Qatar on 02.March 2014 all Musik arranged by Oliver Schmidt. Orchestra Preparation by Tilo Heinrich

The Lion Sleeps Tonight
Solomon Linda was born in the Msinga Valley in South Africa; in
the 1910s he came into contact with African-American spiritual music and worked. Some of its typical syncopations into the Zulu songs he performed with friends at feasts. In the 1930s Linda's band, the Evening Birds, moved to Johannesburg,
to become factory workers. They continued to make music, influenced by their experiences of city life.
They developed their own style and acquired quite a following. In 1939, they recorded a number of songs
for Gallo Records, among them Mbube (lion), a simple song about chasing lions off, something the Evening Birds used to do as children. Linda improvised the melody that
is now associated with the lines,
"In the jungle, the mighty jungle,
the lion sleeps tonight". "When the Tokens wanted to record the song, RCA felt it needed a different text, which George David Weiss--who is known for such hits as "Can't Help Falling in Love"--supplied. There
are countless cover versions of the song, including the one used in the Disney movie The Lion King.