Tokens singer Hank Medress dies

Medress began singing while still at Brooklyn's Lincoln High School

Hank Medress, the vocalist on The Tokens' version of The Lion Sleeps Tonight, has died of lung cancer at 68.

The track spent almost a month at the top of the US chart at the end of 1961 and reached number 11 in the UK.

Medress began his musical career while at school, performing in vocal quartet The Linc-Tones with Neil Sedaka.

After leaving The Tokens in the 1970s, he produced the hit single He's So Fine by The Chiffons, as well as Tony Orlando's Knock Three Times.

The Lion Sleeps Tonight was written by Solomon Linda in 1939 and has been covered more than 170 times.

The Weavers had enjoyed success on the US folk music scene with their version in the 1950s, but the song gained wider recognition when The Tokens took it to number one.

It reached number one in the UK in 1982, when it was covered by pop trio Tight Fit.

Medress and his bandmates enjoyed other top 40 hits including I Hear the Trumpets Blow, in 1966, and 1967's Portrait of My Love.