Tuesday 4 March 2008

The Karl Denver Trio - Wimoweh

My pal Graham had a Vinyl Party last week (no snickering in the back there; vinyl records, not fetish gear). I brought along my Karl Denver LP and, though it wasn't a competition, Wimoweh was the hit of the evening. In my biased opinion anyway.

Words fail me when I try to describe Karl’s vocal technique: yodelling is part of it, but a tiny part. But you can tell he's from Springburn. 

Of course this is only a tiny moment in the songs winding, complicated life story, going from Solomon Linda’s Mbube in 1939 through Pete Seeger, The Tokens’ The Lion Sleeps Tonight, Tight Fit (spoonerism alert), to Disney’s Lion King movie. See here for the full, extraordinary story.

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