Cool South Africa Connection
So, we’re all familiar with the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight“, initially made popular in the US by The Tokens. Well, as I recently tweeted, I found out that a song that I and the other members of the Purdue Varsity Glee Club learned while on our South Africa Trip (Check out my pictures) called “Mbube” is the song that inspired “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” According to a friend in PVGC, they told us this… but I obviously wasn’t paying attention, so I felt proud when I figured it out. Yup.
If you’re interested in hearing the evolution, as well as a few covers, I recommend checking out Coverville Episode 535: Mbube to Wimoweh. It’s an amazing podcast in general and I found this really interesting now that I’ve been to South Africa and experienced a tiny bit of the culture there. That episode of Coverville features an original Mbube (well, as original as you can get) as well as multiple evolutions as the song tranformed from Mbube to the popular “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” that we all know and love. Check it out–it’s pretty cool to see how traditional songs morph into popular songs.