A “friend” of mine posted this on Facebook yesterday:
So, yeah… funny joke and all that, and I do like the Tokens version, but this is an Ohrwurm [1] of the first water, and was singing “Lion Sleeps Tonight” for the rest of the day.
What I didn’t know was that the original version of this song was written by Solomon Linda, entitled Mbube (lion). In 2004, Linda’s descendants filed suit against Walt Disney for unauthorized use of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” in “The Lion King,” and in 2006 received a settlement including payment for past use and entitlement to future royalties. (Wikipedia)
Below is a video of Linda’s group “Evening Birds” singing Mbube – this original version can also be heard in the background of “Cry the Beloved Country”
The Old Wolf has spoken.
[1] This is one of those great words from other languages for which we have no corresponding term in English. Literally an “ear worm,” it’s the German term for one of those melodies that gets stuck in your head and won’t let go. A couple of other ones from German that I love:
1) Gardinenpredigt (curtain sermon): The kind of harangue that Andy Capp expects when coming home drunk at 3:00 AM… but doesn’t get in this case.
The “curtain” in this case refers to the old bedcurtains that used to hang on poster beds:
The labels on the various implements below are 11 PM, 12 AM, 1 AM, etc.
2) Drachenfutter: “dragon fodder” – a gift or some other form of peace offering used by a husband or boyfriend in order to avoid the kind of reaming-out mentioned above.
Playing in the World Game 