Legal Controversy
Decades after not receiving any publishing credit for their specific original musical composition part of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", the band began a lawsuit in order to regain some of these publishing rights. The case was dismissed due to the statute of limitations. To this day the Tokens claim that some of the original musical composition of the 1961 song was created by them, even though they have not been awarded this status by their record company.
On October 19, 2009, Phil and Mitch Margo filed suit in Manhattan for the rights to the Tokens name. They claim in their filing that Henry Medress suggested the name. In a competing suit filed in California by Siegel, he claims Siegel, Medress, and Sedaka released an album named Neil Sedaka and The Tokens previously. On Sedaka's own website, there is a listing in his discography catalog for a 1958 release of Neil Sedaka and The Tokens as well as a second album, also during 1958, named, Neil Sedaka and The Tokens and Coins.
Read more about this topic: Ari Margo
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