The Music of the Tokens: A Lion Sleeps...
()
About this ebook
Robert Reynolds
Based in Calgary, Robert is an emerging author who spends his days working in the oil and gas industry but has been a big fan of the spy thriller genre ever since his childhood when he read one of his grandfather's original James Bond paperbacks from the late 50's. He is married with a young daughter and when he's not day dreaming about dangerous adventures in exotic locales he enjoys running and other outdoor pursuits.
Read more from Robert Reynolds
Three E's of Doo-wop: The Echoes; The Elegants; and The Excellents Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Music of the 4 Seasons Featuring Frankie Valli Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThunder Bay: Mystery and Intrigue In Northern Michigan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVanilla Doo-wop Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsErnesto Juarez Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Fine Gray Rain Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Matter of Finances Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Music of Bobby Goldsboro Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGay and Lesbian, Then and Now: Australian Stories from a Social Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Music of Del Shannon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Music of Johnny Rivers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Four Evers: The 4 Seasons' Connection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Perilous Place Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOutlast the Rain Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Rabbit's Tale Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDion and the Belmonts: Early Doo-wop and Rock and Roll Years Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThis Christmas Eve--A Christmas Tale Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Dark and Curious Place: Vietnam War Era Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMackinac Drift Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWith The Angels Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAlong the Quay Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDestruction of Earth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNovah Burns Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDragon Fire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTrouble's Garden Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The Music of the Tokens
Related ebooks
The Music of the Tokens: Musicians of Note Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Four Evers: The 4 Seasons' Connection: Musicians of Note Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThree E’s of Doo Wop: The Echoes, Elegants & Excellents Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMirror in the Sky: The Life and Music of Stevie Nicks Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWelcome to KinksVille: Pop Gallery eBooks, #6 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Girls Can't Help It: Pop Gallery eBooks, #12 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings25 Albums that Rocked the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Over The Water (Music Trivia for Survivors) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe History of Rock & Roll, Volume 2: 1964–1977: The Beatles, the Stones, and the Rise of Classic Rock Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sweet, Wild and Vicious: Listening to Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhatever Happened to Slade?: When The Whole World Went Crazee! Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHepcats & Rockabilly Boys Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBig Bang, Baby: Rock Trivia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Rocket in My Pocket: The Hipster's Guide to Rockabilly Music Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary of Lenny Kaye's Lightning Striking Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBig Star: The story of rock's forgotten band Revised & Updated Edition Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Big Star: The Story of Rock’s Forgotten Band Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The History of Canadian Rock 'n' Roll Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Great Songwriters - Beginnings Vol 1: Lennon & McCartney Bob Dylan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIf You Like the Beatles...: Here Are Over 200 Bands, Films, Records and Other Oddities That You Will Love Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhy the Beach Boys Matter Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCalifornia Dreaming: The LA Pop Music Scene and the 60s: Guides to Music Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Precious and Few: Pop Music of the Early '70s Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Magic City Rock: Spaces and Faces of Birmingham’s Scene Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWho Wrote The Book Of Love - Music Trivia (Beatles, Elvis & More) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGwen Stefani and No Doubt: Simple Kind of Life Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5First Kiss - Music Trivia (Pop to Country Rock) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsListen to Bob Marley: The Man, the Music, the Revolution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Inside Llewyn Davis: The Screenplay Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Performing Arts For You
Hamlet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Sherlock Holmes Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hollywood's Dark History: Silver Screen Scandals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wuthering Heights Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Best Women's Monologues from New Plays, 2020 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The World Turned Upside Down: Finding the Gospel in Stranger Things Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book: The Script Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Romeo and Juliet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trial Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Diamond Eye: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fifth Mountain: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Is This Anything? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Coreyography: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Count Of Monte Cristo (Unabridged) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes: Revised and Complete Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lucky Dog Lessons: From Renowned Expert Dog Trainer and Host of Lucky Dog: Reunions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Strange Loop Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Doctor Faustus: A Play Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mash: A Novel About Three Army Doctors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Woman Is No Man: A Read with Jenna Pick Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tempest Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Robin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5For colored girls who have considered suicide/When the rainbow is enuf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Music of the Tokens
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Music of the Tokens - Robert Reynolds
The Music of The Tokens: A Lion Sleeps…
Robert Reynolds
ISBN: 978-1-387-76116-6
Copyright: 2018
Introduction
The late 1950s and early 1960s saw a host of East Coast vocal groups occupy the upper reaches of the record charts. Many of these groups came from within a very small area in and around New York City.
Radios blared from tenement windows the cool sounds of hometown groups like Dion and the Belmonts, The Passions, The Mystics, The Echoes, The Four Tunes, The Classics, The Elegants, The Four Lovers (who would soon become known as The 4 Seasons), The Cleftones, The Crests, The Capris, The Duprees, The Chimes, The Dimensions, and many more.
Their songs were often an unusual blend of memorable originals like Little Star,
Little Girl of Mine,
Hushabye,
and Sixteen Candles
and updated remakes of old pop standards like Where or When,
Till Then,
Blue Moon
and Over the Rainbow.
The term doo-wop was often applied to many of the latter tunes, as innovative young crooners added vocal effects like shoo bee doo,
doo doo wah,
and doo lang,
using their voices as they would use an instrument.
One Brooklyn group took this a step further by merging their youthful doo-wop sounds into a reworked African folk chant, to score one of the most recognizable number one records in the history of rock and pop music. That song became the iconic The Lion Sleeps Tonight.
The Tokens experienced many commercial successes and failures over their prolonged careers as singers, producers and record company owners. But they found ways to be highly successful in each phase of their profession.
This is their story.
Chapter 1
During his high school years at Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach area, Neil Sedaka[1] was considered a piano prodigy. However, the talented young man preferred the close-knit harmonies of street corner singers.
One day in 1955, Sedaka overheard classmate Jay Siegel singing falsetto, in of all places, math class. Impressed with Siegel’s chops, Sedaka suggested they form a vocal group and Siegel agreed.
With Brighton Beach classmate Siegel in the fold, Sedaka enlisted three more members from Mrs. Eisen’s choral class—Cynthia Zolotin, Eddie Rapkin and Henry Hank
Medress and aptly dubbed themselves the Linc-Tones.
The fledgling group was soon working bar mitzvahs, weddings and sock-hops.
Cynthia Zolotin’s mother knew Happy Goday who operated a publishing company. The group impressed Goday who introduced them to Morty Craft at Melba Records.
The Linc-Tones, however, may have seemed insufficiently commercial for a stage name so when their first record came out, the label identified them as The Tokens.
In 1956, The Tokens recorded its first single, While I Dream
b/w I Love My Baby,
for Craft and Melba Records. Sedaka sang lead on While I Dream
and Eddie Rapkin sang lead