Found at The South African Rock Music Digest, Issue Number 27:

CLASSIC SONG OF THE WEEK:

THE LION SLEEPS TONIGHT (WIMOWEH)
[Article by] Brian Currin

A traditional Zulu folk-song titled 'Mbube' was recorded in 1939 by Solomon Linda's Original Evening Birds. Since then it has been known variously as 'Wimoweh' and 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight'. Adapted in 1951 by Paul Campbell with English words by Roy Ilene and recorded by The Weavers as 'Wimoweh'.

Revised in 1961 by Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore, George Weiss and Albert Stanton and recorded by The Tokens, a New York-based folk, country-and-western teenbeat vocal quintet, who had a million-seller with this song re-titled 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight'. It was US #1 for 3 weeks and reached #11 in UK.

Recorded by Karl Denver in 1962 titled 'Wimoweh' and went to UK #4. It was recorded a few more times during the 60s, notably by Bert Kaempfert on his Swinging Safari album which reached UK #20 in 1966.

Recorded in 1971 by Robert John, and reached #3 on the US charts in January 1972. Another million-seller. Also recorded in 1972 by Dave Newman and achieved UK #34.

Recorded by Tight Fit in 1982 and went to UK #1.

Appeared as a brief excerpt sung by Timon and Pumbaa in Disney's animated classic The Lion King in 1994. Released as a full version by Lebo M in 1995 on the Rhythm Of The Pridelands CD - a cash-in release after the success of the Lion King movie.

Other artists who have recorded versions of varying quality include:
Pete Seeger
The Nylons
Seven Deadly Finns (featuring Brian Eno!)
Roger Whittaker
Mory Kante
The Kingston Trio
The Main Attraction
The Sugar Beats
M'Lumbo
West India Company
Sandra Bernhard
Hotline (featuring PJ Powers)
Mango Groove
Miriam Makeba

There is a 3-part article called "Where Does the Lion Sleep Tonight?" published in "3rd Ear Music." (Apparently originally written for "Rolling Stone.") This is a fascinating story about the problems of copyright, correct attribution, and collecting royalties on "folk" songs. The article is too long to copy and paste here, but I urge you to read it.