George David Weiss has died

[gary_james]

from the New York Times:

George David Weiss, a songwriter who had a hand in some of the biggest hits of midcentury pop music, recorded by some of the biggest stars, died on Monday at his home in Oldwick, N.J. He was 89.
The death was of natural causes, his wife, Claire, said.

Among his most famous numbers were “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” recorded by Elvis Presley; “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” recorded by the Tokens; and “What a Wonderful World,” recorded by Louis Armstrong.
Mr. Weiss’s other standards include “Lullaby of Birdland” [[1952), the vocal version of George Shearing’s jazz standard, and many songs with his frequent collaborator Bennie Benjamin, among them “Surrender” [[1946), recorded by Perry Como; “Confess” [[1948), recorded by Patti Page; and “Wheel of Fortune” [[1952), recorded by Kay Starr.

He also worked with The Stylistics, co-wrote Let's Put It All Together.

[KevLo]

Hi this is Kev-Lo

I'm sorry to hear this, R.I.P George

[tom_moulton]

He wrote some classic songs.RIP George

[stingbeelee]

The lead stories for George Weiss states that he wrote "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" but I remember a Rolling Stone article from years ago investigating just who wrote the tune, which indicated that a South African singer named Solomon Linda wrote the basic tune in 1939, here is an crazily written article on just who wrote "The Lion Sleeps Tonight":
http://www.3rdearmusic.com/forum/mbube2.html