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Chipmunk Song
By: Ross Bagdasarian, 1958
Ross Bagdasarian was a novelty writer in a non-novelty world. Making a living as a quirky songwriter during the McCarthy era didn’t pay regularly, but Ross was bent on following his own twisted dream. He had one major triumph - He had written the bizzaro hit, “Come Onna my House” for Rosemary Clooney in 1951. But mostly his recording career up to that point was cheesy instrumentals and some weird “drunk at a bar yacking over stupid piano riffs.” He was remanded to the other side of the recording booth in the position of recording engineer.
Bagdasarian loved the dials and the buttons and the little gauges and lights; he truly got a kick out of playing with the technology of recording. Now, back in Ross’s day, the one major evil to be avoided at all costs was recording outside of a non standard speed. The drag of a dirty capstan head or an extra revolution per second due to a power surge would leave a music recording worthless, changed in speed, key, and register. It became a waste of tape, irretrievable. But, that being said, it sure sounded silly. Naturally, Ross had to play with it.
By deliberately recording on the slowest speed possible on his reel-to-reel, he found he could sing normally, and sound like a freak on helium if he sped the recording to normal speed on playback. Using this novelty voice as the background singers for the chorus, Bagdasarian recorded ‘Witchdoctor’, and hit the top of the charts in 1958. Ross scattered to find a means of extending his 15 minutes of fame, and to his great credit he managed to do so within the very same year. He created the personas of three obnoxious drunks who sang harmony, sped the tape up, and Viola! The Chipmunks were born. Bagdasarian, at normal speed, played the hapless manager of the Chipmunks, the fictional David Seville.Interestingly, the chipmunks (Alvin, Simon and Theodore) were named after the two heads of Liberty Records, Al Bennett and Si Warnoker, and the engineer for the session, Ted Keep.
‘The Chipmunk Song’, released for the Christmas season of 1958, sold 5 million copies that year, and The Chipmunk Song received two Grammy Awards in 1958, “Best Comedy Performance” and “Best Recording for Children”.
Dave: All right you Chipmunks! Ready to sing your song?
-I’ll say we are!
-Yeah!
-Let’s sing it now!
Dave: Okay, Simon?
-Okay!
Dave: Okay, Theodore?
-Okay!
Dave: Okay, Alvin? Alvin? ALVIN!
-OKAY!!!)
Christmas, Christmas time is near
Time for toys and time for cheer
We’ve been good, but we can’t last
Hurry Christmas, hurry fast
Want a plane that loops the loop
Me, I want a hula hoop
We can hardly stand the wait
Please Christmas, don’t be late.
Dave: Okay fellas get ready.
That was very good, Simon.
-Naturally.
Dave: Very good Theodore.
-Ahhh.
Dave: Ah, Alvin, you were a little flat, watch it.
Dave: Ah, Alvin. Alvin. ALVIN!
-OKAY.)
Want a plane that loops the loop
I still want a hula hoop
We can hardly stand the wait
Please Christmas, don’t be late.
We can hardly stand the wait
Please Christmas, don’t be late.
Dave: Very good, boys
-Lets sing it again! Yeah, lets sing it again!
Dave: No, That’s enough, lets not overdo it
-What do you mean overdo it?
-We want to sing it again!
Dave: Now wait a minute, boys
-Why can’t we sing it again?
-[chipmunk chatter]
Dave: Alvin, cut that out..Theodore, just a minute.
Simon will you cut that out? Boys…