Solomon Linda - Alan Lomax

Alan Lomax

The original South African recording was discovered during the early 1950s by American musicologist Alan Lomax, who gave it to his friend, folk musician Pete Seeger of The Weavers. Seeger retitled it "Wimoweh" (an approximate phonetic rendering of the song's Zulu language refrain, "uyembube") and it was popularized by The Weavers; they recorded a studio version in 1952 which became a Top 20 hit in the USA, as well as an influential live version recorded at Carnegie Hall in 1955 and released in April, 1957. The Weavers' version was subsequently cover-versioned by The Kingston Trio in 1959.

The Weavers' Carnegie Hall version was also the inspiration for the 1961 version recorded by popular music group The Tokens, for whom it was re-written extensively by George David Weiss and retitled "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"; this is the version with which most people are now familiar. (However, at the time, 1961–1962, a fast-tempo version by the Karl Denver Trio was the more successful in the UK).