[Fiji Hill]

One of the stranger anomalies in rock history, "Lion" began life as a spontaneous recorded outburst by a Zulu tribesman, morphed into a misinterpreted folk smash, found its way to a Noo Yawk doo-wop group, and eventually wound up in the hands of the Sam Cooke producing duo known as Hugo and Luigi, who added tympani, silly woodwinds, and an opera singer. You have to hear it to believe it. But you already have.

The earliest recorded version of the song that would become The Lion Sleeps Tonight

• Mbube--Solomon Linda & the Evening Birds (1939)

In 1952, the Weavers, backed by Gordon Jenkins' Orchestra, turned this into a hit:

• Wimoweh--Gordon Jenkins & His Orchestra

[The_Reader_David]

And then it turned up in the sound-track of The Lion King, which -- the use of the song in the sound-track, not the whole movie -- is by far the best thing Disney (the corporation) did since Walt died.