His daughter Adelaide would die at 38 from AIDS, a potentially preventable disease that could have been treated with the medication the family was unable to afford. In the years after Linda’s passing, his survivors continued to live off the scant paychecks they received from The Lion King. He received less than 50 percent of royalties owed from “Wimoweh” and nothing from “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” Two of his children would die from malnutrition and when Linda himself died in 1962, his widow could not even afford his gravestone.
Meanwhile, in South Africa, Linda was working his hardest to support his eight children and wife. This version would go on to be made in several languages and Linda’s name would once again disappear from the public eye. This version was titled “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” the hit song played by The Tokens. In 1961, producers Hugo and Luigi hired George David Weiss of Brill Building, known for housing music industry offices, to add more lyrics to “Wimoweh”. Another band named the Kingston Trio had success in covering “Wimoweh” in 1959. Linda’s original song became extremely popular in nightclubs and Weaver’s version caused it to gain more traction in 1957. As further compensation, the company gave him a job sweeping floors in their packing house. Linda was paid 10 shillings for signing over the rights of “Mbube” to the company that produced the Evening Bird’s original song, Gallo Studios. Solomon Linda was not credited in this version. The song was recognized under the pseudonym, Paul Campbell. “Wimoweh” was the band repeating this word over a simple chord progression. Seeger mistook Linda’s sound as “Wimoweh” and decided to make his version surrounding the word with his band, the Weavers. It reached folk music historian Alan Lomax who played it for his friend Pete Seeger. “Mbube” spread to Europe throughout the 40s. “Mbube” would become the first African record to sell over 100,000 copies. He released his song with his group in 1939. The main predator he would protect them from is the lion. Linda worked as a cattle herder in the African hinterlands during his childhood. His sound was included in his most famous song “Mbube,” which means “lion’’ in Zulu. He sang over four-part harmony chants in high soprano.
Linda moved to Johannesburg in his mid-twenties and formed an acapella band, the Evening Birds, for the audiences at the local breweries. He never learned to read or write but he loved songwriting. In 1909, Solomon Linda was born in Zulu, South Africa. But the history behind the Disney classic song is much darker than you can imagine. The song would go on to sell millions of copies and be remembered through several generations. If you’ve watched The Lion King you may have heard the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” The song originated from Pete Seeger’s version, “Wimoweh” in 1952.
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