Remastered: The Lion's Share (The Lion Sleeps Tonight Story)

"Remastered: The Lion's Share (The Lion Sleeps Tonight Story)" is a documentary of how one of the most famous pop songs in the world is derived from an African song.

This fascinating documentary tells the tale of the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", and how the words and melody have been taken from a song written by Solomon Linda in 1939.

Randy Lewis wrote about the film in the Los Angeles Times:

"The simplistic version of the story would be that Linda was cheated out of his rightful songwriting royalties by scheming, heartless music business sharps. He originated the song “Mbube,” the Zulu word for “lion,” and during one of three attempts at the song in a South African recording studio, spontaneously spun out the soaring and bewitching falsetto melody that has defined every subsequent version of his song."
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-lion-sleeps-tonight-netflix-documentary-20190515-story.html

The documentary tells the tale of how Linda recorded the song, and how the song emigrated and morphed into a hit by The Tokens:

"The song, as the “Lion’s Share” documentary outlines, dates to 1939, and Linda, whose group the Evening Birds made the recording that found its way across the Atlantic and into the hands of folk music revivalists Pete Seeger and the Weavers, and then, with additional lyrics written by George David Weiss, to the Tokens."

Most people are familiar with the version that The Tokens recorded; yet Linda's family was denied compensation for the song:

'The Lion Sleeps Tonight' wound up generating millions of dollars over the decades, little of which ever reached Linda’s family. It’s a classic theme repeated countless times in the U.S. for black blues, R&B and soul musicians who often unknowingly signed away lucrative rights to their music."
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-lion-sleeps-tonight-netflix-documentary-20190515-story.html

The documentary shows how people tried to right a wrong, namely to have credit for the song and compensation to go to the Linda family. The story involves copyright law, cultural appropriation, the system of Apartheid, a legal fight with Disney, and a literal Dickensian twist.

Now streaming on Netflix, 3 stars.