<P> Anita Darian (April 26, 1927--February 1, 2015) was an American singer and actress who had an extensive career from the 1950s to the 2010s . </P> <P> A soprano, Darian performed roles with the New York City Opera and was a featured soloist with the New York Philharmonic . She also performed and recorded several roles from musicals, including Julie in Show Boat, a recording for Columbia Masterworks in 1962 with John Raitt, Barbara Cook, and William Warfield . She portrayed Lady Thiang in the 1960 revival of The King and I at New York City Center with Barbara Cook as Anna and Farley Granger as the King . She made a number of classical recordings with various contemporary composers as well as solo albums for Fidelio Records and Kapp Records . </P> <P> Born Anita Margaret Esgandarian in Detroit, Michigan of Armenian descent . She was a 1945 graduate of Cooley High School . Anita later studied opera at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and the Juilliard School in New York, but first came to popular attention as a featured singer with the short - lived Sauter - Finegan jazz band of the mid-1950s, with whom she recorded for RCA Victor . She settled in New York City and worked in everything from opera and classical recitals to television jingles and cartoon voice - overs . She appeared in several television productions of musicals and operas from the 1950s to the 1970s . Anita also sang the female soprano portion on The Tokens' 1961 #1 hit "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". Her high counterpoint to the lead and backup singers was an astounding merging of her operatic training and the pop genre . </P> <P> As late as 2012, she was featured in concerts honoring the Great American Songbook . Darian died on February 1, 2015, aged 87, at South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside, New York due to surgical complications . </P>

Who sang the high part in the lion sleeps tonight