Newsgroup: it.fan.radio.deejay
Titolo: canzone

ciao, qualcuno sa il titolo e l'autore della canzone fumetto che si vede in 
tv l'ippopotamo e il cane per la precisione l'ippopotamo canta in the jungle 
the lion sleep tonight.
potete aiutarmi.
grazie ale 


è una canzone del 1961, label RCA, cantata da "The Tokens". su internet 
gira anche il filmato completo (bellissimo) dell'ippopotamo che dura un 
sacco e che quelli del marketing hanno ripreso (tagliato) e usato...
cia!
alessandro
========================================================
BACKGROUND: This is the story of an African doo-wop song. Its original 
title was “Mbube,” (pronounced EEM-boo-beh) which means “Lion,” and it 
was sung with a haunting Zulu refrain that sounded, to English-speaking 
people, like “wimoweh.” “Mbube” was a big hit in what is now Swaziland; 
it sold nearly 100,000 copies in the 1940s by its originator, South 
African Solomon Linda.  Linda had written it based on a boyhood 
experience chasing lions that were stalking the family's cattle, and 
recorded the tune in 1939 with his group the Evening Birds. It was so 
popular that Zulu choral music became known as “Mbube Music”. Then it 
passed into the broad field of  “folk” music, albeit by an indirect 
route. The South African recording company sent it along with some other 
78s to Decca Records in the U.S.  Decca wasn't interested, but folk 
historian and musicologist Alan Lomax was. He took the records to Pete 
Seeger, of the American folk group the Weavers. Seeger was enchanted by 
“Mbube”, especially the refrain which sounded to him like “awimbooee” or 
  “awimoweh”  (it was actually “uyimbube” in Zulu).   The Weavers (led 
by Gordon Jenkins' Orchestra) adapted it into a Top 15 hit in 1952, as 
“Wimoweh”.  It was basically an instrumental with the group singing 
“wimoweh” over and over, with other vocal flourishes.  The tune really 
took off in the Weavers' live version at Carnegie Hall in 1957. Linda 
was notWeavers at Carnegie Hall credited as the writer; that honor went 
to “Paul Campbell”, a pseudonym for the group. However, when the 
Kingston Trio released their version in 1959 (on the From the Hungry i 
LP) the writer credit was listed as “traditional; adapted and arranged 
by Campbell-Linda.” Meanwhile, Linda died with only $25 in his bank 
account; his heirs are still pursuing royalties from the song that is 
perhaps one of the most well-known worldwide hits. The complete story, 
too long to be included here, was thoroughly documented in an amazing 
work of scholarship by Rian Malan, in Rolling Stone, May 25, 2000 ("In 
the Jungle"). Luckily, it can be read online at 3rd Ear Music.
THE STORY: In New York City, there was a doo-wop group called the 
Tokens. They had originated in a Brooklyn high school with Neil Sedaka 
as the lead singer, but when Sedaka left to become a solo star, they 
broke up. Only Hank Medress was left; he put a new quartet together with 
Jay Siegal and the Margo brothers, Phil and Mitch. Then they went out, 
got a recording contract with Warwick Records, and turned out a doo-wop 
hit called “Tonight I Fell In Love” (“Dom-dooby-dom-wo-oh, dooby 
dooby”). It hit #15 on the national charts.
      A few months later, the Tokens had a chance to move up in the 
world. They were offered an audition with the top RCA production team of 
Hugo (Peretti) and Luigi (Creatore). And what song did these doo-woppers 
pick to audition with? “Wimoweh.” Like much of America in 1961, they 
were caught up in the folk music boom. Jay Siegal explains: “I loved 
folk music and discovered ‘Wimoweh’ on the album The Weavers at Carnegie 
Hall. We used to sing it for our own pleasure, and everybody loved 
it...We thought we were going to be another Kingston Trio or Highwaymen.”
      Hugo and Luigi were impressed, but they decided the song needed 
new lyrics. With George Weiss, they keyed in on the tune’s origins and 
wrote “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”  “They thought it was fantastic,” Jay 
says, but  “the rest of the group didn’t want it to come out. They were 
embarrassed by the title; it sounded so ridiculous. We were purists 
then.”  Despite their objections, the Tokens recorded the romanticized 
version in May 1961 at RCA Studios on 23rd Street in Manhattan. Anita 
DarianClassically-trained singer Anita Darian Click to hear Anita 
sing!supplied the high soprano during the sax solo and as the counter 
melody to the lead vocal. Darian has a four-octave vocal range, and has 
sung everything from opera to television jingles in her long career. The 
year before the Tokens' session (1960) she had recorded a rare album of 
Near and Middle Eastern songs called East of the Sun (Kapp 
KS-3052/KL-1168). Anita still performs today and was featured in a 2003 
Cabaret Festival in New York City.
     The session also yielded another folk song, this time from 
Portugal, called “Tina.” RCA promoted that side, and it started to get 
airplay in New York on deejay Murray the K’s radio show. Jay recalls: “I 
had gotten married when we had just recorded the record. When I got back 
I took a job. Two or three weeks later we heard from a manager or lawyer 
who said, ‘Quit your job. The record is going to be a smash.’ ”
     But it was the B side that was starting to sell. In the interim, 
Dick Smith of WORC in Worcester Massachusetts, had flipped the Tokens’ 
record over and began playing “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” By November it 
was on the national charts, and reached #1 by Christmas time. “We 
weren’t embarrassed anymore” says Jay.
      FOR THE RECORD: After this smashing success, the Tokens’ career 
took a different course. They began producing records, not singing them 
[ “He’s So Fine”, “Tie a Yellow Ribbon”, “Knock Three Times”]. Then late 
in 1971, exactly ten years after the first “Lion” captured the American 
audience’s ear, he began roaming the airwaves once more, in a 
note-for-note duplicate by Robert John that reached the Top 10 and sold 
a million copies again. Although Hank Medress is the only one credited, 
the Tokens actually produced their own comeback. Both Jay and Mitch sang 
on the new record, with songwriter Ellie Greenwich, amazingly, singing 
bass. Jay Siegal: “We did not put our names on as the Tokens because we 
thought radio people and program directors would not believe it was 
another person singing if they saw that we produced it (it really was 
Robert John singing, by the way).”
MORE  INFORMATION (courtesy of Bill Brent & Fred Clemens):
    Solomon Linda: "Mbube" by Solomon Linda's Original Evening Birds was 
released originally as Singer GB.829 in 1939.  It's available on the 
excellent compilation Mbube Roots - Zulu Choral Music from South Africa, 
1930s-1960s (Rounder 5025).  The record was a huge hit in South Africa, 
and stayed in the catalog for at least 15 years, during which time the 
label's name changed from Singer to Singer-Gallotone, then to 
Gallotone-Singer, and finally to simply Gallotone.  It shows up on all 
four labels  One copy located is from so late in the record's catalog 
tenure that theSolomon Linda original metal parts had been exhausted, 
and an alternate take was used in its place; there are three takes of 
"Mbube" on 78. This alternate is of considerable interest, since it 
proves that the falsetto vocal part near the end of the record (which 
provided the melody for the verse of  "The Lion Sleeps Tonight") was a 
chance improvisation by Linda, not a part of the song itself.  The other 
alternate take of the tune does not have any similar part, but has 
instead some other vocal effects that the familiar take lacks. Take 
three was reissued on Yazoo 7010, SMM Vol. 4 (also accapella; Linda's 
choice of style). "Mbube" was covered by several other African groups, 
including the Manhattan Brothers (a minor local hit) and others. Linda's 
group made many other records, but this one from the beginning of their 
recording career was by far their biggest seller, and in fact gave name 
to the singing style in which the song was performed--Mbube. The first 
appearance of  Solomon Linda's original  "Mbube" in the United States 
comes about 1954, when Tony Schwartz used an excerpt of it on N.Y. 19 
(Folkways FP 58). Schwartz is an award-winning media guru, who has among 
his many accomplishments the first use of real children's voices in 
commercials (instead of actors imitating children).
   The Weavers: The original Decca release (27928) has "Gordon Jenkins & 
His Orchestra" in large print and "The Weavers" in small print.
    Miriam Makeba: In 1953, "Lakutshona Ilanga" was the first song ever 
recorded by Makeba, on an album by the Manhattan Brothers, for whom she 
had become vocalist the previous year. The song became known (not 
literally translated) as "Lovely Lies" in English "Mama Africa": Miriam 
Makebain 1955 (London Records) and charted in the Top 100 in America, 
peaking at #43 in 1956. The record was evidently big in Boston, where 
according to Cashbox, it reached #7. Apparently, during her time with 
the Manhattan Brothers, Makeba picked up "Mbube", although she may have 
known it from the Linda version. The RCA album (LSP-2267) containing her 
rendition was Miriam Makeba, and she is backed on the song by both the 
(Harry) Belafonte Folk Singers and the Chad Mitchell Trio.
    The Tokens: had a follow-up release to their "Lion..." hit, called 
"B'wa Nina". That song was also based on an earlier African tune, also 
previously recorded by Miriam Makeba, "The Click Song" (later referred 
to as "The Click Song #1", since she later recorded a similar "sounding" 
tune she entitled "The Click Song #2"). "The Click Song" (#1) had it's 
origin in the Xhosa language asMeet the Beetle "Gqongqotwane":
     Gqongqotwane is the dung-gathering beetle-- the miser of the insect 
world, known to the Xhosas as the Road Wizard.     (Quoted from an early 
mid-60's LP by the Manhattan Brothers, issued in the US on Joy Records 
[#5004]). This is why "The Click Song" was also known in English as "The 
African Beetle Song".
    "Wimoweh": Borrowing loosely from Gordon Jenkins' arrangements, the 
song appeared by Jimmy Dorsey  (Columbia) and Yma Sumac (Capitol). 
Later, it was revived again by Bert Kaempfert  (Decca). After the 
Tokens, the list starts to get silly and long, as with Manu DiBango's 
twist 45 version. From there the lion goes back to sleep for a while 
until the '70s (Robert John), then returns in the '80s (r.e.m.) and full 
circle in the '90s to Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and of course, the 
Broadway production of The Lion King.

 cia!
[SNIP]
Questo è un link utile:
http://www.vetrinait.com/modules/news/print.php?storyid=47
PS: Complimenti per il post...

netwiz wrote:
[MEGACUT]
ma scusa se ti chiedo informazioni su einstein mi copi e incolli tutto 
il trattato sulla teoria della relatività?

anto a.k.a last stage delirium® ha scritto:

beh, magari un breve riassunto... :-P
scusate la lunghezza, mi sono fatto prendere la mano...
a.