Other artists who have recorded various versions of the song include R.E.M., NSYNC, Henri Salvador, Karl Denver, Jimmy Dorsey, Yma Sumac, Noro Morales, Roy Zimmerman, Miriam Makeba, and The Kingston Trio.

He spent his weekends performing with his musical ensemble, "The Evening Birds", and it was at this record label, under the direction of producer "Griffiths Motsieloa", that Linda and his fellow musicians recorded several songs, including "Mbube", which incorporated a call and response pattern common among many Sub-Saharan African ethnic groups, including the Zulu.

According to journalist Rian Malan: "'Mbube' wasn't the most remarkable tune, but there was something terribly compelling about the underlying chant, a dense meshing of low male voices above which Solomon yodeled and howled for two exhilarating minutes, occasionally making it up as he went along.

The third take was the great one, but it achieved immortality only in its dying seconds, when Solly took a deep breath, opened his mouth and improvised the melody..." Issued as a 78-rpm phonograph record[7] and marketed to black audiences, "Mbube" became a hit and Linda a star throughout South Africa.

[9] In 1961, two RCA Records producers, Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore, hired Weiss to arrange a Doo-wop and Rhythm and blues cover of "Wimoweh" for the B-side of a 45-rpm single called "Tina", sung by group The Tokens.

[12] Social historian Ronald D. Cohen writes: "Howie Richmond copyrighted many songs originally in the public domain but now slightly revised to satisfy Decca and also to reap profits".

[13] Howie Richmond's claim of author's copyright could secure both the songwriter's royalties and his company's publishing share of the song earnings.

[2] In 2000, South African journalist Rian Malan wrote a feature article for Rolling Stone in which he recounted Linda's story and estimated that the song had earned $15 million for its use in the Disney 1994 movie The Lion King alone.

The piece prompted filmmaker François Verster to create the Emmy-winning documentary A Lion's Trail, released in 2002, which tells Linda's story while incidentally exposing the workings of the multi-million dollar corporate music publishing industry.