They may be forever defined by 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight', their huge universal hit of 1961, but the enduring influence and importance of The Tokens - who once featured Neil Sedaka in an early line-up - stretches much further. Before Elvis and the rock & roll revolution and before The Beatles and the beat boom, the hottest records around were made by the male vocal groups creating a style known as doo-wop, which had its beginnings in Afro-American communities in the 1940s.
Having their start as school friends at Abraham Lincoln School in Brooklyn, New York, The Tokens emerged in the 1950s as one of the most popular (and the first white) exponents of the art, built around tenor and baritone vocal harmonies, and pioneering falsetto vocals. Under their original name The Linc-Tones, the first line-up featured Neil Sedaka alongside Hank Medress, Eddie Rabkin and Cynthia Zolotin, re-launching themselves as The Tokens when Medress was joined by Jay Siegel, Phil Margo and his then 13-year-old brother Mitch (who went on to write much of their original material). More recently Phil Margo's son Noah and Mitch's sons Damien and Ari have been group members.
With Siegel becoming the central force, they had their first hit with 'Tonight I Fell in Love' in 1961 for Warwick Records, but it was 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight' which brought them international acclaim following a celebrated appearance on the 'American Bandstand' TV show. Based on an old South African Zulu song called 'M'bube' or 'Wimoweh', it was one of the first group records to sell a million copies and overall sales have now topped 15 million worldwide. Years later it became the subject of a bitter legal dispute when the group made an unsuccessful attempt to earn from the publishing rights to the song. Smaller hits followed, including 'I Hear Trumpets Blow' and 'Portrait of My Love', and they also diversified into studio production with their own company Bright Tunes producing hits for The Chiffons with 'He's So Fine', Randy & The Rainbows with 'Denise', The Happenings with 'I Got Rhythm' and 'Go Away Little Girl' and Tony Orlando & Dawn with 'Knock Three Times' and 'Tie a Yellow Ribbon'. New members came and went and with different line-ups touring as The Tokens, ownership of the name itself became the subject of a legal dispute, but their influence was strongly felt through the rise of groups like The Beach Boys and The Four Seasons.
