This week’s jewel from the Video Vault comes to us by way of the band performing it. It’s an interesting song because the phrasing echoes another hit with a rather complicated past. The video is just another example of the kind of tongue-in-cheek playfulness of the band itself:
The Guitar’s chorus, while it has different lyrics pays homage to the classic Token’s hit The Lion Sleeps Tonight. Mbube has an interesting history itself:
“The Lion Sleeps Tonight” began as a 1939 African popular music hit “Mbube” that, in modified versions, also became a hit in the US and UK.
“Mbube” (Zulu for “lion”) was first recorded by its writer, Solomon Linda, and his group, The Evening Birds, in 1939. Gallo Record Company paid Linda a single fee for the recording and no royalties. “Mbube” became a hit throughout South Africa and sold about one hundred thousand copies during the 1940s. The song became so popular that Mbube lent its name to a style of African a cappella music, though the style has since been mostly replaced by isicathamiya (a softer version)...
...New lyrics to the song were written by George Weiss, Luigi Creatore, and Hugo Peretti, based very loosely upon the meaning of the original song. The Tokens’ 1961 cover of this version rose to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and still receives fairly frequent replay on many American oldies radio stations.
Trivia/Info:
- The theme from this song is borrowed from the Tokens hit, “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” Even though these words never appear in the song, the record label insisted the subtitle appear in the song name. (source: Direct From Brooklyn DVD commentary)
- Video features (extremely) brief cameos of Jon Spencer, Joshua Fried, and Robin Goldwasser.
- Trumpet: Frank London
- Despite what you see in the video, John Linnell does not play bass guitar on this song.
- Filming locations: 18 Havemeyer St, Brooklyn (John Linnell's former apartment); McCarren Park, Brooklyn (and surrounding streets in Northside); The Warsaw, Brooklyn
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