Oldies Week - "Mbube" (Solomon Linda)

We're taking a week to look at old African songs that became popular outside the continent. This time it's "Mbube," by Solomon Linda. Later reworked as "Wiwmoweh" and "The Lion Sleeps Tonight."

It is the most famous melody ever to emerge from Africa, a tune that has penetrated so deep into the human consciousness over so many generations that one can truly say, here is a song the whole world knows. [Linda] was the Elvis Presley of his time and place, a shy, gangly 30-year-old, so tall that he had to stoop as he passed through doorways. It’s odd to imagine him singing soprano, but that was usually his gig in the group: He was the leader, the "controller," singing what Zulus called fasi pathi, a blood-curdling falsetto that a white man might render as first part. (Rian Malan)

Because this week is dedicated to "old African songs that became popular outside the continent," I thought I'd be remiss not to mention the South African song that started life as "Mbube."

Then I ran across an extensive Rolling Stone article, from 2000, that summed up the topic very thoroughly. So I pivoted to plan B - a summary. If you're not ready to commit to reading that lengthy article, here are a few notes and some of the most popular of the many, many versions of the song.

"Mbube"

It started here, in South Africa, with Solomon Linda and the Evening Birds' version of a song called "Mbube." It was sung in Zulu and was released to little fanfare, in 1939, by South Africa's Gallo Records. It ended up being a massive hit and eventually lent it's name to a style of music. The group - with their natty attire and eye-catching choreography - were riding high for a time, but the money that should have been due Linda - the songwriter - never came.

"Wiwmoweh"

In the early Fifties, a copy of the song fell into the hands of folk singer, Pete Seeger. To his ears, the Zulu word "uyimbube" sounded like "wimoweh." Thus the next major incarnation of the song - "Wimoweh" - was recorded by Seeger's group, The Weavers, and released in 1952. It was soaring up the charts when The Weavers became caught up in the anti-Communist hysteria of the day and things fell apart.

The doo-wop craze of the late Fifties and early Sixties brought yet another reworked version of "Mbube." This time it was released, in 1961, by a doo-wop group called The Tokens, with a new set of lyrics. It was a hit, charging up the charts all the way to number one. Linda was not credited as a songwriter.

The Lion King

As writer of a song that spawned a pile of cover versions and made a lot of people a lot of money, Linda was screwed - if you’ll pardon the legal jargon.

It was the use of the song in The Lion King, in 1994, that set the wheels in motion to rectify things. Not that it did Linda any good - he died poor, in 1962. Part two of Malan's Rolling Stone article discusses the immense amount of detective work needed to make sense of where the money from the song ended up and who should make restitution. A second, more recent, RS article, gives an update on the legal wranglings surrounding "Mbube."