Alvin and the Chipmunks - Oo Ee Oo Ah Ah!

by Felice Prager

Anyone who grew up in the Fifties is sure to remember the original run of Alvin and the Chipmunks. Their success started in the 1950's and was revived in the1980's, to continue into the 21st century.

The Chipmunks were a fictional music group made up of Alvin, the mischievous troublemaker, who quickly became the star of the group, Simon, the tall quiet one who wore glasses, and Theodore, the chubby, impressionable chipmunk.

They were managed by their human "dad" David "Dave" Seville. In reality, "David Seville" was Ross Bagdasarian's stage name. Ross Bagdasarian created the Chipmunks by using different recording techniques that he invented at Liberty Records in Los Angeles.

The voices of the Chipmunks were all performed by Bagdasarian, who sped up the playback to create the most-distinctive higher pitched squeaky voices. This process was so unusual and well executed that it earned Bagdasarian two Grammy Awards for engineering. It has since been copied by others.

Ross Bagdasarian was born in Fresno, California in 1919. His first cousin was the famous playwright, William Saroyan. Ross worked as an actor and spent two years acting in Saroyan's The Time of Your Life. Bagdasarian and Saroyan wrote a song they called "Come On-A My House" while they were driving across New Mexico in 1939 which was used in an off-Broadway play called The Son in 1950 before it was recorded by Kay Armen.

In 1951, a recording by Rosemary Clooney of "Come On-A My House" became a hit. Bagdasarian continued with his acting career and appeared in some films, including Stalag 17, Viva Zapata, and most notably, Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 masterpiece Rear Window.

He decided to use the name David Seville for his work in recording studios, which was becoming more frequent and more interesting to him. He also continued with his songwriting. Some novelty songs followed in 1957 and 1958, such as "The Bird On My Head" and "Gotta Get To Your House". Bagdasarian had been writing songs and recording at Liberty Records.

On April 14, 1958, what proved to be his first big hit entered the charts: "Witch Doctor". Seville had read a book titled Duel with the Witch Doctor. He experimented with recording at half speed and then playing his tapes back at full speed. The result was Witch Doctor, and the public loved it. It shot up the charts and became a #1 hit for three weeks during its 18-week run.

Bagdasarian continued to try more experiments with tape speed, this time adding the voices of three characters that he created whom he called Alvin, Simon, and Theodore. Collectively, because of the sound of the speeded up voices, they were known as The Chipmunks. They were named for Liberty Records executives Alvin Bennett, Si Waronker, and Ted Keep. Late in 1958, Bagdasarian released "The Chipmunk Song" with the singing credits going to The Chipmunks with David Seville. In the first five weeks after its release, the song sold three and a half million records, and in December,1958, it was the #1 song on the pop charts.

Seville changed the name of the group slightly to David Seville and the Chipmunks, and the following February reached the top ten again with "Alvin's Harmonica". The group resurrected a song that had been popular early in the twentieth century titled "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" and had another hit. Chipmunks' albums were very popular and selling quite well in the late 50's. More recordings were made into the early 60's. Some of them had seasonal themes, and the Chipmunks placed several more songs in the top forty up until 1962.

Seville's creation of the Chipmunks has become part of pop culture of the Fifties and Sixties. Four albums made the charts in the late 50's and early 60's, including one called The Chipmunks Sing the Beatles Hits. By 1970, they had sold over thirty million records.

The first television series to feature the characters was The Alvin Show. The cartoon gave more distinctive looks and personalities to the three chipmunks than just their voices. The cartoon portrayal of David Seville was a caricature of Bagdasarian himself. The series ran from 1961 to 1962 and was one of a small number of animated series to be shown in Prime Time on CBS.

It was not immediately successful and was canceled after one season. It did find a new life in syndication. In addition to the Chipmunks cartoons, the series also featured Clyde Crashcup and his sidekick, Leonardo. The first television series was produced by Format Films for Bagdasarian Film Corporation. It was broadcast originally in black and white but it was later re-run in color. Although the series was broadcast in black and white, it was produced and later re-run in color.

Ross Bagdasarian died in 1972, in Beverly Hills. He was only 52 years old. His son, Ross Bagdasarian, Jr., revived the Chipmunks in 1980, and two more albums were released, including Chipmunk Punk. The group had its own animated series on Saturday morning television in the mid 1980's.

In the 1990's further development included the addition of the Chipettes three female versions of the Chipmunks ”Brittany, Jeanette, and Eleanor” with their own human counterpart, Mrs. Miller. The success continued with movies and movies made just for video distribution. In total, Alvin and the Chipmunks have received five Grammies.

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