Be sure to reach the end of this article to see the full video!

There’s nothing like seeing a great musician perform live. And one of the best things about live performances is that they give people a whole new way to appreciate well-known songs.

When The Tokens covered The Lion Sleeps Tonight, did they think that it would become such a huge hit?

In the western world, when people think of The Lion Sleeps Tonight, they’re probably thinking of The Tokens’s version. The single has become much bigger than the band themselves.

In fact, you might be surprised to learn that there was even a version of The Lion Sleeps Tonight before The Tokens’s single.

It’s true. The song actually comes from a South African artist called Soloman Linda, who recorded the first version way back in 1939. And the original version of this song was performed in Zulu and named Mbube, meaning Lion.

The song was later adapted into English, and many successful bands of the 50’s and 60’s covered it.

But none became as famous at The Tokens’s version. They first released the single in 1961. The single shot to number one on the US music chart and went on to sell over one million copies.

The Tokens had a very long career after the release of The Lion Sleeps Tonight, but the song would always define them. Therefore, they had to keep on performing it live.

If they ever got bored of performing The Lion Sleeps Tonight, it didn’t show, as this video makes clear.

The video begins with the band’s frontman, Jay Siegel, singing those famous opening “Weeheeheehee” lyrics.

The drums play their signature lead in to the song. Then the backing vocalists all sing “awimaway awimaway.”

A female vocalist starts joining in with the song, adding an operatic like cry to the vocals.

She’s clearly far too young to have been the original female vocalist in the song. But she sounds amazing. She’s giving the backing vocals a whole new energy.

For the next two minutes, everyone in the band combines to give a pitch-perfect rendition of The Lion Sleeps Tonight.

Everyone in the crowd was amazed at what they witnessed. It must have been like hearing the song for the first time all over again!

Luckily, someone uploaded the performance onto YouTube for the whole world to enjoy. It soon went viral.

Even though everyone knows The Lion Sleeps Tonight, people just had to see it being performed with such energy! To date, the video has gained over 17 million views. It also has 87,000 likes and 5,600 comments. People have been saying things like this:

Videos like this show why it’s important to see music live.

Seeing an artist perform a song in person can give you a whole new appreciation of the music you love. There’s nothing quite like it!

There will be many more covers of The Lion Sleeps Tonight, but could anything ever top The Tokens’s version?

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Source: kbto54