The Tokens were an American doo-wop band and record production company group from Brooklyn, New York City. The group has had four top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, all in the 1960s, their biggest being the chart-topping 1961 hit single "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" borrowed heavily from the 1939 song "Mbube" by South African singer Solomon Linda. They are also known for having included at first Neil Sedaka, who later pursued a solo career. The band was formed in 1955 at Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, New York, and was known first as the Linc-Tones, a name inspired by the President of the United States' surname. The original members were Neil Sedaka, Hank Medress, Eddie Rabkin, and Cynthia Zolotin; however, Rabkin was replaced in 1956 by Jay Siegel. In the same year the band recorded its first single, "While I Dream", with Sedaka on lead vocals; the song was a local hit in New York. Sedaka and Howard Greenfield wrote much of the group's early material. They were unusual among teen vocal bands of the time because they were not a cover one. In 1957, Zolotin left the band. Briefly recording as the Tokens and the Coins, Sedaka left the group in 1958 to launch his solo career. Siegel and Medress then recorded three singles under a side project for Roulette Records, Darrell & the Oxfords in 1959, with two other musicians who never joined the band. Finally establishing its most famous name and line-up, the group became known as the Tokens in 1960 after recruiting the 13-year-old multi-instrumentalist and first tenor Mitch Margo and his baritone brother Philip "Phil" Margo. More information...
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