"Little Lion Man" is the debut single by London folk quartet Mumford & Sons

Mumford & Sons

Mumford & Sons are a British folk rock band. The band consists of Marcus Mumford , Ben Lovett , Country Winston Marshall , and Ted Dwane...

 released from their debut album, Sigh No More

Sigh No More (Mumford & Sons album)

The album has received mainly positive reviews. On the review aggregate site Metacritic, the album has a score of 68 out of 100, indicating "Generally favorable reviews."-Track listing:-Bonus tracks:-Release history:...

. It was released in the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 11 August 2009.

The single was ranked in first place in Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2009, an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n music poll and the largest in the world with over 800,000 votes cast in total. It won by the largest ever margin in the history of the competition.

The song was nominated for Best Rock Song for the 53rd Grammy Awards

53rd Grammy Awards

The 53rd annual Grammy Awards were held on February 13, 2011, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. They were broadcast on CBS with a rating of 26.6 million viewers. Barbra Streisand was honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year two nights prior to the telecast on February 11. Nominations were...

.

In October 2011, NME

NME

The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...

placed it at number 43 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".

The song does not include a Parental Advisory warning despite the word "fuck

Fuck

"Fuck" is an English word that is generally considered obscene which, in its most literal meaning, refers to the act of sexual intercourse. By extension it may be used to negatively characterize anything that can be dismissed, disdained, defiled, or destroyed."Fuck" can be used as a verb, adverb,...

" being included in each repetition of the chorus. In some radio edits the word "messed" is used in place of "fucked"; in others, the word "fucked" is removed.

Composition

Frontman Marcus Mumford

Marcus Mumford

Marcus Oliver Johnston Mumford is an English lead singer of the Mercury Prize- and Grammy-nominated band Mumford & Sons. He plays many instruments with the band, including guitar, drums, and mandolin. He is recently engaged to Academy Award nominated actress Carey Mulligan.-Background:Mumford was...

 has said about the song:

"It’s a very personal story, so I won’t elaborate upon too much. Suffice to say, it was a situation in my life I wasn’t very happy with or proud of… and sometimes when you can’t describe a feeling with your own words, it’s almost easier to express in a song. And then, when you get asked about the songs, it’s quite difficult to explain. It’s a conundrum — you don’t want to seem self-indulgent explaining yourself; it’s always awkward. Which is weird again, because it’s never awkward actually singing them. I suppose the song should stand on its own and people draw their own interpretation from the words. But for me, personally, it’s the lyrics that I listen to again and again in a song. I place specific importance on them. I can’t write lyrics unless I really feel them and mean them, which can sometimes be quite frustrating — because if you’re not feeling much at the time, you’re stuck.

I guess the sound of it grabs you a little bit by the balls — it’s quite an aggressive song, a bit more of a punch in the face. Or at least, for our stuff, anyway — a lot of our stuff isn’t quite as hard-hitting as that. It felt like the right song to be the single because it represented the harder, darker side of what we do, and at the same time, the more folksy and punchy side.”

Track listing

• CD single

Chart performance

"Little Lion Man" first debuted on the UK Singles Chart

UK Singles Chart

The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

 on 20 September 2009 at number 72. The following week the single climbed eleven places to number 61. On 4 October 2009, the single climbed to number 47, before climbing into the Top 40 at a current peak of number 24 on its fourth week in the chart. The single fell ten places to number 34 before falling to number 47 on 25 October 2009, meaning it only spent two weeks within the Top 40. The song found its biggest success in Australia, debuting at number 23 in October before eventually reaching a peak of number 3 in February 2010.

In the US, "Little Lion Man" entered the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 chart dated 28 August 2010, when it debuted at #98. It has since reached #61 but has re-entered at #45 after a performance at the Grammys. It has now sold over 1,000,000 digital copies there.
> > > > > >

Charts (2009–2010)	Peak position

}
|-

|-

|-

|-
|US Alternative Songs (Billboard)
| style="text-align:center;"|1
|-
|US Rock Songs

Rock Songs

Rock Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine which ranks the airplay of songs on alternative, mainstream rock and triple A radio stations. The first chart was published in the issue dated June 20, 2009. "Know Your Enemy" by Green Day was the first number-one song. The Rock Songs...

 (Billboard)
| style="text-align:center;"|3
|-
|US Adult Pop Songs (Billboard)
| style="text-align:center;"|16
|}

Year-end charts

Charts (2010)	Position
Australian Singles Chart	46
UK Singles Chart	173

Nominations

Year	Organization	Award	Result
2010	2010 MTV Video Music Awards 2010 MTV Video Music Awards The 2010 MTV Video Music Awards took place on September 12, 2010 at Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, honoring the best music videos from the previous year...	Best Cinematography in a Video
2011	53rd Grammy Awards 53rd Grammy Awards The 53rd annual Grammy Awards were held on February 13, 2011, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. They were broadcast on CBS with a rating of 26.6 million viewers. Barbra Streisand was honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year two nights prior to the telecast on February 11. Nominations were...	Best Rock Song