27 February 1982
I haven’t seen The Lion King in any of its iterations, but I understand it includes a version of ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’. Hopefully not this version, which wears the song’s Zulu origins and culture like a leopard-skin loincloth.
The low, rumbling refrain is still residually catchy and if you search online for the original recording by its main composer, Solomon Linda, you’ll hear how different and remarkable the high wailing part can sound too. Both parts are singing the Zulu phrase “Uyimbube“, meaning “you are a lion”. Here, though, it’s treated as gibberish, a quaint bauble picked up on a colonial tour of duty. This isn’t of Tight Fit’s making, as they’re covering a ’60s doo-wop version, but they’re perpetuating it.
The music video and TV performances I’ve seen on YouTube of Tight Fit carrying out ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ are everything you’d expect from an ’80s portrayal of a Zulu song set in a jungle.
