Philip Margo
American musician and author (1942–2021)
title: "Philip Margo" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1942-births", "2021-deaths", "american-television-writers", "musicians-from-brooklyn", "american-male-singers", "record-producers-from-new-york-(state)", "american-soul-singers", "the-tokens-members", "singers-from-new-york-city", "writers-from-brooklyn", "20th-century-american-drummers", "american-male-drummers", "screenwriters-from-new-york-(state)", "american-male-television-writers", "20th-century-american-male-musicians", "american-people-of-sephardic-jewish-descent", "20th-century-american-jews", "21st-century-american-jews", "drummers-from-new-york-city"] description: "American musician and author (1942–2021)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Margo" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American musician and author (1942–2021) ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Philip Margo |
| background | solo_singer |
| birth_date | |
| birth_place | New York City, New York, U.S. |
| death_date | |
| death_place | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| occupation | Musician, author, writer |
| genre | Pop |
| past_member_of | The Tokens |
| :: |
| name = Philip Margo | background = solo_singer | birth_date = | birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S. | occupation = Musician, author, writer | genre = Pop | past_member_of = The Tokens
Philip Frederick Margo (April 1, 1942 – November 13, 2021) was an American musician and author who was a longtime member of the Tokens, along with his brother Mitch. They are best known for their hit recording of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" which rose to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remained there for three weeks in 1961.
Biography
Margo was born in Brooklyn, New York, on April 1, 1942, to Leon and Ruth (née Becker) Margules. He was of Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jewish origin from the Ottoman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Russian Empire.
Margo authored the 2010 science fiction novel, The Null Quotient.
He died at a hospital in Los Angeles, California, after suffering a stroke, on November 13, 2021, at the age of 79.
The Tokens
In addition to his singing, Margo also played the drums. He performed with The Tokens on the following television programs:
Record Production
With The Tokens, Margo was successful as a record producer for artists including the following:
References
References
- Wynn, Ron. "Biography: The Tokens". [[All Media Guide.
- (2023-11-24). "Remember The Tokens of 'Lion Sleeps Tonight' Fame?".
- Brandle, Lars. (November 18, 2021). "Philip Margo, Singer on The Tokens' Hit 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight,' Dies at 79".
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::