WESLEY HILLS, N.Y. — You may or may not recognize the name. Jay Siegel sang with a band in the late 1950s and early 60s called The Tokens. You may or may not recognize that name either, but the song they recorded in 1961 went on to become one of the most popular songs in all the world. The Lion Sleeps Tonight is probably the most recognizable song on the planet and as you’ll see, the story of Jay Siegel and The Tokens goes far beyond that. Penobscot Bay Pilot spent a few minutes with Siegel and took a trip down memory lane.

How old are you now and how old were you when you joined the Tokens?

“I started in the group when I was in high school, I was not even 16-years-old, and the original founder of the group was Neil Sedaka, he was a year older than me in Lincoln High School and the original name of the group was The Linc-Tones, which was later changed to The Tokens. That’s when the group started in 1956 and I am now 72.”

Are you still friends with Neil Sedaka?

“Oh yeah, Neil lives in Manhattan and I live about 40 miles away in Rockland County, which is a suburb of Manhattan  We have never lost touch and we still see each other three or four times a year for dinner and we’re still really great friends.”

Did Carol King go to your high school?

“Carol King did not go to my high school. Carol King went to a high school about 5 miles away. She went to Madison High School. In fact, we all were .friends and we all knew each other and I remember singing down in Carol King's basement when she had a piano. Me, Neil and a couple of other guys from The Tokens.”

The Lion Sleeps Tonight turns 52 years old this year. Hard to believe — did you ever think it would last so long?

“It is hard to believe because, at least for me anyway, there’s not a person in the world — and we’ve traveled all over the world — and there is not a person that doesn’t know that song. Including kindergarten kids because everybody has seen The Lion King and it’s preformed in that Broadway show. All the road companies sing it and it’s in the movie. Who would have ever thought, not in a million years. When The Lion King came out RCA re-released our record and it became a worldwide hit all over the world for the second time in a row 40 years later.”

With that re-entry in 1994 comes the distinction of having the longest charting song in the rock era according to Billboard Magazine...

“You know that’s been written, I don’t do the stats on stuff like that, but somebody must have done some research and discovered that bit of information, but what number one record would become a hit 40 years later. The phenomenon about that record is that it’s as unique today as it was back then because there’s still nothing like that out there.”

Coming up in June you’re doing program called Rockin’ At Sea, what’s that all about?

“It’s a cruise. It’s a themed cruise on a ship that leaves New York and goes to Bermuda and there are three acts on the ship. It’s ourselves, The Duprees, and a group called Kenny Vance and the Planotones.

We do special concerts for the people who sign up for this particular cruise and it’s a lot of fun. We have another one coming up in November called Malt Shop Memories and that one is produced by the Time/Warner Group and that’s another big one and it lasts about a week. Neil Sedaka will be on that cruise and I may even do a song or two with Neil during his show, so that will be fun and I’m really looking forward to that one.”

The Tokens were the first vocal group to produce a million-seller record for another group, and I’m referring to The Chiffons here, but were there any others?

“We didn’t know what the longevity of The Tokens would be, so we figured out that we should learn about the music business, which we all loved, so we actually formed our own record company and one of the first records we produced was by a group called The Chiffons and that was He’s So Fine, which went on to become a million seller and we produced One Fine Day, also by The Chiffons. We went on to produce all the hits by The Happenings, See You In September, I Got Rhythm and Go Away Little Girl and we produced Tony Orlando and Dawn, Candida, Knock Three Times and Tie a Yellow Ribbon. When we weren’t in the studios producing records as The Tokens we were producing other artists.”

Pan Am, Wrigley’s, Wendy’s, Ban, Sunkist and Clairol all benefited from your talent. Tell us a little bit about that.

“In the early 60s we were called upon by one of the big advertising agencies in New York city to create a commercial for, Dentine Gum it was, and they wanted to get to a younger demographic, so they came to us and asked us to write and produce a commercial for them and it was very successful. Word of mouth gave us a lot more products to write for and do jingles for in Manhattan, on MadisonAvenue, that’s where the advertising business is in New York, and we were very successful writers of TV jingles. In fact one year we had over 30 radio and TV jingles on the air. That was a very good year for us.”

One commercial that turned out well for you was for Clairol wasn’t it?

“Yes, one of the agencies that had Clairol called us and had a new product coming out called Hair So New and we did this commercial called She Lets Her Hair Down. It was a 30-second spot for TV and 60 for radio. The commercial was so successful the writers created an entire song and we recorded it for Buddha Records and it was a Top 40 national hit record as She Lets Her Hair Down  and it was born from that Clairol commercial.”

How many countries did The Lion Sleeps Tonight reach number one in?

“When it first came out in the United States it took four weeks to reach number one, selling over 3 million records, and it stayed on the charts for three months. Then RCA released it worldwide and it became number one in 36 countries all over the world. It gave us the opportunity to tour all over Europe, and we were one of the first American groups to tour the world. Quite surreal, that people knew who we were and our records, that these are four kids from Brooklyn who never got that far, but it was really a great time.”

Who are the members of your band now and are their any original members?

“There are not any original members in the group; I’m the only original member that founded the group back in 1956 with Neil Sedaka. One of the guys in the group, his name is Bill Reed, and he has been with me for over 20 years. The newest guy has been with me seven years now and his name is Jay Traynor and Jay was the original Jay of Jay and the Americans who made the number one, million selling record, She Cried, and that’s the group as it stands today.”

In the original version of Lion Sleeps Tonight, you brought in an opera singer, is that correct?

“Yes, we got into the studio the day we were making the record and we saw this young woman there, her name was Anita Darian, and she was part of the New York Metropolitan Opera. Our producers decided to put her on the record during the instrumental break and sing an incredibly high soprano part, higher than my falsetto part. We thought it was pretty strange to have an opera singer sing on the record and we shook our heads and said, what’s that all about, but I have to credit our producers because they were right.”

In closing:

“We’re very, very thankful to all the fans who come out to see our live shows. We know it’s not that easy to hear these songs on the radio anymore unless you want to pay for it, so we’re very, very thankful to the fans who come out and they are the greatest fans in the world. We thank them for supporting us and this music for all these years.”

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To contact Chris Wolf, email news@penbaypilot.com.