"Grazing in the Grass" is an instrumental composed by Philemon Hou and first recorded by the South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela. Released in the United States as a single in 1968, it reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, ranking it as the 18th biggest hit of the year. In 2001, Masekela included the song in his album Grazing in the Grass: The Best of Hugh Masekela.

"Grazing in the Grass" was inspired by an earlier Masekela recording, "Mr. Bull No. 5". Hou, an actor and singer, came up with the melody while the backing track was already being recorded. The session was held at Gold Star Studios in Hollywood.

The Friends of Distinction recorded a vocal cover version of the tune in 1969 on RCA Victor, which was also a Top Ten pop and R&B hit, reaching no. 3 on the former and no. 5 on the latter. One of the group's members, Harry Elston, wrote lyrics for the song and sang lead on the Friends Of Distinction's version of it.

"Grazing in the Grass" has been recorded by many other musicians, including Stevie Wonder (on his 1968 album Eivets Rednow), Chet Atkins, Galapagos Duck, Boney James, Rick Braun, Larry Harlow, Willie Mitchell, The Monitors, The Scofflaws, Meco, and Dexys.

In 2004, the song was covered by Raven-Symoné; her version was played on Radio Disney, but it never received a general commercial release as a single for airplay in other venues. The music video for her version features her and dancing extras interacting with scenes from The Lion King 1½, the video also received frequent airplay on Disney Channel, as well as MTV and BET.

...
Wikipedia