The Tokens featuring Jay Siegel
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Formed in New York City in 1958, The Tokens
best-known achievement was their smash hit ?The Lion Sleeps
Tonight? (#1, 1961). The song, which is derived from a Zulu
folk melody originally titled ?Mbube? (which sounded like ?wimoweh?)
was first a hit recording in the Thirties in Africa.
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It was popularized in the Fifties by Miriam Makeba, who sang it in
Zulu, on Victor records. This was followed by an
English-language rendition by The Weavers entitled ?Wimoweh.? |
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The Tokens? souped-up English version sold over three million
copies. The first version of The Tokens was formed in 1956 by
Neil Sedaka and Hank Medress and included Eddie Rabkin and
Cynthia Zoliton. |
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The group broke up after recording two Sedaka-Howie Greenfield sides. Medress formed another group
with Jay Siegel, Warren Schwartz, and Fred Kalkstein two years
later, but it too dissolved. Medress and Siegel then teamed up
with brothers Phil and Mitch Margo. |
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These four formed the group?s best-known lineup. Their first
single, on Warwick, had been ?Tonight I Fell In Love,? which
sold 700,000 copies in the U.S. and 300,000 in Canada and
Europe.
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1950's |
1960's |
1970's |
