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George David Weiss, popular songwriter

George David Weiss, 89, a prolific songwriter who cowrote "Can't Help Falling in Love," "What a Wonderful World," "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," and many other pop hits, died Monday at his home in Oldwick, N.J.

George David Weiss, 89, a prolific songwriter who cowrote "Can't Help Falling in Love," "What a Wonderful World," "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," and many other pop hits, died Monday at his home in Oldwick, N.J.

During his heyday in the 1940s, '50s, and '60s, Mr. Weiss cowrote songs that were recorded by singers such as Frank Sinatra ("Oh! What It Seemed to Be"), Perry Como ("Surrender"), Patti Page ("Confess"), Kay Starr ("Wheel of Fortune"), Ella Fitzgerald ("Lullaby of Birdland"), and Nat "King" Cole ("That Sunday, That Summer").

"Can't Help Falling in Love," with words and music by Weiss, Hugo Peretti, and Luigi Creatore, was written for the 1961 Elvis Presley movie Blue Hawaii.

The song became a big hit for Presley, who regularly sang the ballad in his later stage shows.

Mr. Weiss, Peretti, and Creatore also shared credit on the 1961 song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," which became a No. 1 hit for the Tokens.

The song was based on a 1939 South African hit called "Mbube" (Zulu for "Lion") by Solomon Linda and performed by his group. In 1952, the American folk group the Weavers released an adapted version of the song titled "Wimoweh."

"I did some research and found out that the chant was connected to the lion," Mr. Weiss told the Santa Fe New Mexican in 1995. "So I began to think, and I came up with the notion that the darn lion was sleeping tonight and nobody had to worry. And I incorporated the chant into the song and wrote some melodies and counter-melodies."

Mr. Weiss teamed with Bob Thiele to write "What a Wonderful World," which was recorded by Louis Armstrong in 1967 and was later featured in the 1987 Robin Williams movie Good Morning, Vietnam.

Mr. Weiss also collaborated on three Broadway musicals, including the 1956 hit Mr. Wonderful (with Jerry Bock and Larry Holofcener), which starred Sammy Davis Jr. and featured the title song and "Too Close for Comfort."

Mr. Weiss, who was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984, served as president of the Songwriters Guild of America from 1982 to 2000.

"He was a very strong advocate for songwriters' rights," said Rick Carnes, the current president of the Songwriters Guild of America, adding that Mr. Weiss testified before Congress a number of times on copyright issues.