This Week's Soundtrack: Mbube (The Lion)

Another song from Angelique Kidjo, which was so naggingly familiar that it made my scratch my head again. Most people know the English version, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", covered first by the Weavers in 1952 as "Wimoweh."

But it's an African song with an older history. It was composed in an offhand studio session in 1939 by a South African Zulu musician named Solomon Linda. The song made his musical reputation, if not his fortune, and has gone into the African repertoire, covered by Miriam Makeba as well as by Angelique Kidjo, for whom Makeba was an inspiration.

You can read about the song's history and you can also watch Linda performing the original version. Different from "Wimoweh"!