Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Lion Sleeps Tonight
SteynonLine ^ | May 26, 2024 | Mark Steyn

Posted on 05/27/2024 1:14:54 PM PDT by Twotone

Every generation has a sleeping lion just waiting to wake and roar up the charts. In the early Eighties "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" got to Number One in Britain for Tight Fit. Can't quite place Tight Fit? It sounds like a vaguely parodic name for a boy band, but in fact they were a coed combo - one boy, two girls, a male model and two female dancers, hired as a photogenic front after the record had already been made. The girls had failed to make the cut at an audition for the more successfully contrived group, Bucks Fizz, and were shortly booted out of Tight Fit, too. But for a few weeks in 1982 on the BBC's "Top Of The Pops" they did well enough moving about in synchronized "Wimowehs" while the male model mouthed to a vocal track actually sung by a guy from the band City Boy:

The bottom inevitably drops out of the Tight Fits of the music biz, but "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" roars on regardless. It's one of the biggest songs ever about a lion, apart from the Oscar-winning "Born Free" and the Eagles' "You can't hide those lion eyes". "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" has been a hit in every medium - on movie screens all over the world, in Disney's The Lion King, and then on Broadway, in the stage version. Before Tight Fit, it was a Billboard Number Three for Robert John in the Seventies, a Number One for the Tokens in the Sixties; under the title "Wimoweh", it was a hit for the Weavers in the Fifties, and in the Forties, as "Mbube"... Ah, but that's where the story gets murkier.

Who wrote those words about the mighty jungle? It was a guy called George Weiss...

(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...


TOPICS: History; Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: marksteyn; peteseeger; solomonlinda; wimoweh
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-25 next last

1 posted on 05/27/2024 1:14:54 PM PDT by Twotone
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Twotone

The article shows the 1982 video from Tight Fit! I just laughed! Such a video could never be made today! I am glad I was in college in 1982 instead of today!


2 posted on 05/27/2024 1:22:19 PM PDT by vaskypilot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Twotone

The article shows the 1982 video from Tight Fit! I just laughed! Such a video could never be made today! I am glad I was in college in 1982 instead of today!


3 posted on 05/27/2024 1:22:21 PM PDT by vaskypilot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Twotone

Great stuff!


4 posted on 05/27/2024 1:30:09 PM PDT by who knows what evil? (Hospitals are the most dangerous place on Earth! Dr. David Williams)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Twotone

Does anyone remember John Boy and Billy radio show and the song “The Bobbit Sleeps Tonight”?


5 posted on 05/27/2024 1:32:32 PM PDT by packagingguy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Twotone; All

That lions not asleep, his eyes are open! Hilarious video, got to be the most ridiculous one I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying something!


6 posted on 05/27/2024 2:11:12 PM PDT by notdownwidems (Washington D.C. has become the enemy of free people everywhere!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Twotone

Amazing how many times that song has been recorded since 1939


7 posted on 05/27/2024 2:11:35 PM PDT by Jolla
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Twotone

“Lion Eyes”! LOL. Did he really say that?


8 posted on 05/27/2024 2:13:36 PM PDT by moonhawk (Jeffrey Epstein did't kill himself; George Floyd did.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Twotone

Remember 500 miles?


9 posted on 05/27/2024 2:34:57 PM PDT by Gaffer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: moonhawk
“Lion Eyes”! LOL. Did he really say that?

Yup. Reminds me of that great hit record, "Ain't No Woman Like the One-Eyed Gott".
10 posted on 05/27/2024 2:47:14 PM PDT by Dr. Sivana
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Twotone

Thanks for posting.


11 posted on 05/27/2024 3:26:21 PM PDT by TexasKamaAina (The time is out of joint. - Hamlet)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Twotone

Great story! Thanks for posting.


12 posted on 05/27/2024 4:05:46 PM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (לעזאזל עם חמאס)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Twotone

I’m never sorry I read a Mark Stein article.


13 posted on 05/27/2024 4:16:01 PM PDT by AloneInMass (You'd think there would be more similarity between "chain letter" and "chain mail".)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: packagingguy

No,but I have searched for the song, ‘Run, Bambi, run’ for years. Bambi
Bembenek that is.

Anybody know of that one I’d love a link.


14 posted on 05/27/2024 5:10:43 PM PDT by Beowulf9
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Jolla

Anyone remember “Wonder Where the Lions Are” by Bruce https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6Lpx6JIMmk


15 posted on 05/27/2024 5:19:34 PM PDT by KC Burke
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Twotone

I always kinda’ liked the song, it’s catchy with a good hook. But that video is garbage.


16 posted on 05/27/2024 5:21:15 PM PDT by Bullish (...And just like that, I was dropped from the ping-list)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Dr. Sivana
Yup. Reminds me of that great hit record, "Ain't No Woman Like the One-Eyed Gott".

Eh? It isn't "Ain't No Woman Like the One-Eyed Goth"?


17 posted on 05/27/2024 5:54:01 PM PDT by null and void (“No matter how cynical you become, it’s never enough to keep up”. ~ Lily Tomlin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Twotone

Aweem Awep.


18 posted on 05/27/2024 6:13:36 PM PDT by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: moonhawk

Classic Steyn play on words. I wish I were 10% the wordsmith he is.


19 posted on 05/27/2024 6:21:16 PM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Jolla
I was introduced to this song by the very estimable Kingston Trio on their Hungry i album; Wimoweh.

CA....

20 posted on 05/27/2024 6:33:39 PM PDT by Chances Are (Seems I've found that silly grin again....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-25 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson