1st RECORDING OF: Mbube (evolved to ‘Wimoweh’ & ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’) - Solomon Linda (1939)

Just about everyone has heard the 1961 Tokens hit , but here’s the Zulu-language original by the South African performer Linda with his musical group the Evening Birds. “Mbube” (pronounced EEM-boo-beh) is Zulu for ‘lion,’ but the history and evolution of this piece is complex enough that I’ll leave any further research to you (Wikipedia summary: ). The original 78rpm single was issued on (South Africa) Gallotone 829 - Mbube (Linda) by Solomon Linda’s Original Evening Birds For hundreds of other ‘originals,’ please visit the fascinating playlist “FIRST RECORDING OF THE SONG…” (click here: ) . ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The three* MusicProf channels are home to The HITS ARCHIVES, YouTube’s most comprehensive collection of U.S. ‘popular music’ recordings from 1925 thru 1975. Discover thousands of original hit versions, conveniently arranged in year-by-year playlists and sorted alphabetically in your choice of either song title or artist name. Simply visit this channel’s home page (here: @the78prof72 ), scroll down the rows of playlist categories, choose a favorite year, click on “view full playlist,” and then pick out the songs that you want to hear. Enjoy the music! * The78Prof The45Prof AnotherProf