The song was also covered extensively by other folk revival groups such as The Kingston Trio, and exotica singer Yma Sumac. It reached Billboard Template:'s top ten and became a staple of The Weavers' live repertoire, achieving further exposure on their best-selling The Weavers at Carnegie Hall LP album, recorded in 1955 and issued in 1957. The Weavers credited the song as "Traditional", with arrangement by "Paul Campbell", later found to be a pseudonym used by the Weavers in order to claim royalties. Their version contained the chanting chorus "Wimoweh" and Linda's improvised melodic line. In November 1951, after having performed the song for at least a year in their concerts, The Weavers recorded an adapted version with brass and string orchestra and chorus and released it as a 78 single titled "Wimoweh", a mishearing of the original song's chorus of " Uyimbube Template:-", Template:Lang-zu. In 1949, Alan Lomax, then working as folk music director for Decca Records, brought Solomon Linda's 78 recording to the attention of his friend Pete Seeger of the folk group The Weavers. Linda's song also gave the name to a style of African a cappella music that evolved into isicathamiya (also called mbube), popularized by Ladysmith Black Mambazo. By 1948, the song had sold over 100,000 copies in Africa and among black South African immigrants in Great Britain. Issued by Gallo as a 78-rpm phonograph record in 1939, and marketed to black audiences, "Mbube" became a hit and Linda a star throughout South Africa. In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight. The third take was the best, achieving immortality when Solly took a deep breath, opened his mouth, and improvised the melody that the world now associates with these words: "Mbube" wasn't the most remarkable tune, but there was something compelling about the underlying chant, a dense meshing of low male voices above which Solomon yodelled and howled for two exhilarating minutes, improvising occasionally. He spent his weekends performing with the Evening Birds, a musical ensemble, and it was at Gallo Records, under the direction of producer Griffiths Motsieloa, that Linda and his fellow musicians recorded several songs, including "Mbube", which incorporated a call-response pattern common among many Sub-Saharan African ethnic groups, including the Zulu. "Mbube" ( Zulu for "lion") was written by Solomon Linda, a South African Zulu singer, who worked for the Gallo Record Company in Johannesburg as a cleaner and record packer. 3.4 "The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh)".He produced three top-10 hits for the 1960s girl group: “Sweet Talkin’ Guy,” “One Fine Day” and “He’s So Fine. It was the Chiffons who caused Medress to leave his singing career behind. The Tokens had several more modest hits in the ‘60s and started their own label, B.T.
Their first single, “Tonight I Fell in Love,” reached No. Following several lineup shuffles, the Tokens were formed in 1960 by Medress, Jay Siegel and brothers Mitch and Phil Margo (Joseph Venneri was later added). After little success, Sedaka left in 1958 for a solo career.
The Tokens originated at Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1955 when Medress, Neil Sedaka and two other students joined to become the Linc-Tones. “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” a catchy, doo-wop tune based on a traditional Zulu melody and a reworking of the Weavers’ 1950s folk version of “Wimoweh,” was a No. Hank Medress, 68, who sang “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” with the pop vocal group the Tokens and went on to produce hits for such groups as the Chiffons and Tony Orlando and Dawn, died of lung cancer Monday in New York, according to publicist Diana D’Angelo.