December 24: The Lion Sleeps

“The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” by the Tokens, a doo-wop group headed by Jay Siegel, achieved number-one status on this date in 1961. The song was created as “Mbube” (“lion” in Zulu) in the 1920s by Solomon Linda, a South African Zulu singer; it sold tens of thousands of copies and became the name for a style of African a capella music. In 1949, Alan Lomax brought the song to Pete Seeger, who reworked it as “Wimoweh” (a mispronunciation of the word in the chorus) and made it with the Weavers into a top-ten hit. In 1961, a lyricist named George David Weiss was hired by RCA to add English lyrics and a new arrangement, and the Tokens recorded it. The song, which was plagued for years by copyright issues, eventually earned millions of dollars as the theme of Disney’s The Lion King.

“Hush, my darling, don’t fear, my darling/the lion sleeps tonight.” —George David Weiss