Billy Joel and Jimmy Fallon's "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" A Capella Is Flawless
Fallon and Joel become a two-man doo-wop band in this classic Tonight Show clip.
When Billy Joel swung by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, he and Jimmy Fallon made some beautiful music together. But instead of using classroom instruments to cover one of Joel's classic tunes, Fallon veered in a doo-wop direction using a then-new technology — specifically, an iPad sound looping app.
In The Tonight Show clip from March 2014, the two created a gorgeous version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," as made popular by The Tokens in 1961, using only their voices. Fallon started off, singing "Wimoweh" while recording himself and looping it on his phone. Joel, whose hit "The Longest Time" incorporated a capella doo-wop, followed with his own "Wimoweh" as Fallon rounded it out with another layer of his voice.
Once they finished looping, the two took turns singing the verses before coming together to harmonize on the iconic chorus. While their cover started off a capella, The Roots eventually joined in with a little backing drums.
Watch Billy Joel and Jimmy Fallon's perfect "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" cover here.
What started off as a gimmick — using an app to loop their voices — turned into a beautiful duet between Fallon and Joel. Their brief performance was met with enthusiastic cheers from the enthralled audience, who clapped along to their flawless cover.
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This wasn't the last time Fallon and "the Piano Man" performed together. They sang "Beast of Burden" by the Rolling Stones when Joel appeared on The Tonight Show back in January 2016. That same week, Fallon joined the "Uptown Girl" singer at one his shows at Madison Square Garden, where the duo covered another Rolling Stones track, "Start Me Up."
Leave it to Joel and Fallon to keep us in a New York state of mind.
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All about the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"
"The Lion Sleeps Tonight" was originally written and sung by Solomon Linda, a South African musician and singer. Linda's version was titled "Mbube."
The Weavers recorded and released it as "Wimoweh" in November 1951, but it was The Tokens who released it as "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" in 1961, where it became a number one hit in the U.S. The song was also introduced to a new generation when it was briefly featured in the 1994 animated blockbuster, The Lion King.
