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Wimoweh definition3/25/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() I’m proud that 50 years later, he still delights audiences and sounds as good as ever and I can’t wait til I get a chance to see him again (which will be in about a month at Bowzer’s Ultimate Doo-Wop Party Vol. Jay is one of very few artists performing songs in their original key today and he’s been blessed with an amazing voice. As we were driving around looking for a place to eat after the show, I think we passed by Jay in one of the local shopping centers (it would’ve been funny if we’d bumped into him again at dinner but there were no restaurants in that area, and we wanted to find someplace quick so we could eat before the second show that evening). So he signed my 45 and also one my friend brought, and then he went on his way and we went on ours. I had so much wanted to gush on and on about how much I love their music and have ever since I was a little kid, but I couldn’t force the words out, instead just replying “yeah!” when he asked if I had a 45 of his (the record, by the way, is of I Hear Trumpets Blow, something I’ve never heard them sing in concert but wish they would add it to their set sometime when I see them). One time after a concert in Lancaster, PA my friend George and I were getting into George’s car parked behind the theater (the only place we could find a parking space at all on the theater grounds, the show was sold out) and as I’m getting in the car, I noticed someone looking very much like Jay Siegel talking to someone else close to the theater, so I grabbed the 45 I brought to possibly have signed (most acts at that show were not out doing autographs, the Tokens among them, unfortunately) and I shyly walked up to him. I’ve never been disappointed in their sound. I’ve seen Jay Siegel and the Tokens a number of times (At least 5 or 6 in the last 3 years since I started actively attending oldies concerts as time and money has permitted me, I am only 26 after all, and work full time for a living). Top photo left to right- Jay Traynor, Jay Siegel, and Bill Reidīottom photo Hank Medress, Jay Siegel, Phil and Mitch Margo Jay changed the melody to make the lyric fit the meter … and the rest is history!”įOR THE TOURING SCHEDULE OF JAY SIEGEL AND THE NEW TOKENS VISIT THEIR WEBSITE When we came to the recording session, they handed Jay the lyric as he was about to go on microphone. Hugo and Luigi said they wanted to put a lyric to it. They said, “That’s a hit! What does the lyric mean?” We told them Jay had checked with the African consulate and it was about a lion hunt, etc. Then they asked if we had anything else? I said there’s a song we sing on the beach. First we played them our original songs, but they weren’t very interested. Hank continued, “We had an audition with Hugo and Luigi at RCA. He was a big Pete Seeger fan and he loved his version of ‘Wimoweh’.” Jay Siegel was the one who turned us on to that song. That was the song we used to sing on street corners. I was riding the subway home to Brighton Beach, some lady overhears me talking about the record we just made, says she and her son have a record company … they release it and we have our first hit! On that same session, we recorded ‘Wimoweh’, before it became ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’. I borrowed $60 and we made a demo of the song. Right away we all started writing songs together, which included ‘Tonight I Fell In Love’. I went down to Ocean Parkway to check them out. When I interviewed Hank Medress, for Spectropop, just before he passed away, I asked him how the group got together and how they came to record “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” Hank said, “I knew Jay Siegel from school, and Neil Sedaka, who was still halfway in our group, thought Jay sang great! Then I heard about these two brothers, Phil and Mitch Margo. Although I never got a single cut with any of their artists I enjoyed playing material for them and engaging in the knock hockey tournaments they held in their offices at 1697 Broadway. The original group, Hank Medress, Jay, Phil, and Mitch Margo in addition to making hit records themselves produced classic hits for other artists, The Chiffons (“He’s So Fine”, “One Fine Day”) Tony Orlando and Dawn (“Knock Three Times”, “Candida”). I talked to my old friend Jay a few days ago, and was amazed when he told me that he hasn’t lost the stratospheric top notes in his vocal range, which is probably why i guess Jay Siegel and the New Tokens do so incredibly well on the oldies circuit…they sound like the hit records! ![]() One of the defining records of the sixties that is still so fresh it could have been recorded yesterday. It’s hard to believe that it’s been 50 years when we first heard “THE LION SLEEPS TONIGHT” and the incredible falsetto of Jay Siegel of the Tokens. ![]()
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