The surviving singers of the 1961 chart topper “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” are at each others’ throats over the right to the group’s name, the Tokens.
In Manhattan federal court papers, brothers Phil and Mitch Margo say the group originally called itself Those Guys but came up with a new name for the release of its first single in 1960.
They say former member Henry Medress — who died in 2007 — suggested the name the Tokens.
In a competing suit, filed in California, ex-bandmate Jay Siegel says he and Medress founded the group in 1956 with Neil Sedaka, releasing one album — “Neil Sedaka and The Tokens” — before Sedaka quit to find solo fame.