The Tokens are an American male doo-wop vocal group from Brooklyn, New York. They are best-known for their chart-topping 1961 single, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". In early 1961, The Tokens released a single for Warwick Records entitled "Tonight I Fell In Love," which went to #15 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and earned them an opportunity to appear on American Bandstand. The popularity that the band garnered as a result of this performance brought them new recording opportunities, culminating in their cover of Solomon Linda's "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" for RCA Victor. It rose to #1 on the Billboard chart, where it remained for three weeks. Both "Tonight I Fell in Love" and "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" sold over one million copies, and were awarded gold discs. Decades after receiving no publishing credit for their specific original musical composition within "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", the band went to court in order to regain some of these publishing rights. However, the case was thrown out due to the statute of limitations. To this day The Tokens claim that some of the original musical composition in the 1961 hit was created by them, even though they have not been awarded this status through their record label.
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