by peur evol

Created on: January 18, 2007   Last Updated: April 01, 2007

Alvin and the Chipmunks. Just the name conjures up fond childhood memories. I actually remember seeing The Chipmunk Adventure movie at the theater when it first came out. I still play The Chipmunk Christmas Album every year during the holidays. My kids even like the Chipmunks cartoons. So, what's the deal with them anyway?
In 1958, little known singer Ross Bagdasarian (under the pseudonym David Seville), while experimenting with recording speeds, found that if vocals were recorded at half-speed and then played at normal speed, the vocals would come out a full octave higher. Although he may not have been the first person to experiment with this technique, he was the first to have a successful hit recording; "The Witch Doctor".

Riding on the popularity of this hit, several months later he released "The Chipmunk Song" (now under the name David Seville and The Chipmunks). With this recording he reached the #1 chart position, held it for 4 weeks between December '58 and January '59, and sold four million copies of the 45rpm record. (By today's standards, four million sales would equal fifteen million people with it downloaded onto their hard drive.) Not bad for a 'disposable' novelty record. But this was only the beginning.
After winning three Grammy awards in 1959 for "The Chipmunk Song" (Best Children's, Best Comedy, Best Engineered), he was approached by CBS to develop a cartoon series based upon these increasingly popular characters. Disagreements over the animation and character design slowed production; "The Alvin Show" wouldn't appear until 1961, and lasted only one season. It remained in on-again/off-again syndication for the next twenty years. The Chipmunks popularity as novelty music artists remained somewhat constant until Bagdasarian's death in 1972, holding down respectable sales figures even though the bulk of their output was 'cover tunes'.
This would be impressive by itself if the story ended here, but it doesn't. Bagdasarian's son, Ross Jr. began revitalizing The Chipmunks in 1979. In December 1981, with animation by the legendary Chuck Jones, "A Chipmunk Christmas" aired on NBC, reviving interest in the characters. NBC picked up the franchise for it's Saturday morning lineup, and "Alvin and the Chipmunks" ran from 1983 until 1991. This series would mark the height of the Chipmunks' popularity, as Ross Jr., using the typical '80s media/marketing mold, would license the characters into toys, clothing, school supplies, and a well received feature film.
Sadly, a new Chipmunks revival may take awhile. Copyright issues between Bagdasarian and Universal have halted the proposed live action/CGI film, and any new media is left indefinitely in limbo. What a long, strange trip it was from one-off novelty record to worldwide recognition. Perhaps Ross III will revitalize them again for our grandchildren; stay tuned.

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