In Celebration of the Human Voice - The Essential Musical Instrument

Tokens

Male Doo Wop Quintet.

The Tokens are well-known for one giant hit song that they put on the charts in late 1961, and the members of the group continued on in the music business in various capacities following the success of that hit.

The Lion Sleeps Tonight, also known as Wimoweh, is a Zulu song that had been sung by a tribe in South Africa. There are indications that the song originated with Solomon Linda, who wrote it as Mbube and had a hit with it on Gallotone Records in South Africa, in 1939. The Weavers recorded it as Wimoweh before the Tokens picked up on it and recorded their own spirited version of the song for RCA in 1961.

Following the success of The Lion Sleeps Tonight, the Tokens put nine more songs in the top 100 from 1962 to 1970, two of which made it to the top forty: I Hear Trumpets Blow on their own B. T. Puppy label and Portrait Of My Love on Warner. Portrait Of My Love had been a top ten hit for Steve Lawrence earlier in the decade.

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The Tokens : Harmony Hits

Formed in 1955 at Brooklyn's Abraham Lincoln High School, and known as the Linc-Tones, the group changed its name to the Tokens and included Neil Sedaka as an original member. In early 1961, The Tokens released a single for Warwick Records entitled "Tonight I Fell In Love," which went to #15 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and earned them an opportunity to appear on American Bandstand. The popularity that the band garnered as a result of this performance brought them new recording opportunities, culminating in their famous cover of Solomon Linda's "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" for the RCA Victor. Jay Siegel's characteristic lead vocals helped the song rise to #1 on the Billboard charts, where it remained for three weeks. Here is a great budget priced collection of their original hits.

Songlist: The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh), B'wanina (Pretty Girl), Don't Worry Baby, She Lets Her Hair Down, Tonight I Fell In Love, Little Hot Rod Suzie, Let's Go To The Drag Strip, Tina, Weeping River, The Wreck Of The John B.