The Music of the Tokens: Musicians of Note

By Robert F. Reynolds

In 1939, South African Solomon Linda turned a tribal chant into a local hit tune.  Years later a copy of the record found its way to Decca Records.  Folk artist Pete Seeger interpreted the song's relentless chant to be "Wimoweh" and recorded it thus.  In the early 1960s, a group of New York City doo-woppers who called themselves The Tokens, recorded the song with new lyrics.  Within six weeks their record went to the top of the singles charts.  "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" became one of the top-selling records for the year.  The Tokens went on to have a long-running career as recording artists, record producers, and record company owners.  They were instrumental in creating number one hits while working with The Chiffons and The Happenings, all while continuing their successful recording career.  The Music of the Tokens relates the story of this enduring group and their classic song, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Robert Reynolds
• Release date: Jan 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9781387761166

Robert F. Reynolds

Robert F. Reynolds has penned several books, including: A Perilous Place; Thunder Bay; El Paso Run; The Rabbit's Tale; Along the Quay; Gray Wolf Pass; Mackinac Drift; Orchids and Sand; Molasses Men; Ernesto Juarez; Stiller's Creek; A Dark and Curious Place; A Fine Gray Rain; and others.  He's also written several music related books in his The Music of.... series. 

Book preview

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 on the flip side.

The record got them on The Ted Steele Dance Time television show.  Although it generated interest locally, the record failed to chart and Zolotin and Sedaka left the band in 1958.  The breakup was perhaps inevitable, as Neil was quite fond of Cynthia