My good friend Ken is a record-collecting maniac. I met him through our work on Muppet Wiki, where he spent a LONG time helping to whip the record categories into shape. He knows far more than any one person should about records, especially the ones made for kids, and so for his guestpost here he decided to take you on a musical history trip...50 years ago today, on December 22, 1958, "The Chipmunk Song" by The Chipmunks with David Seville went to #1, and stayed there for 4 weeks. David Seville (born Ross Bagdasarian) had been recording music at Liberty Records for a few years (mostly pop instrumentals), when in 1958 he had the idea for a novelty record using sped-up vocals. The result was "Witch Doctor", which hit #1 for 3 weeks on April 28, 1958. For a follow-up, he conceived the idea of 3 harmonizing chipmunk brothers singing about what they wanted for Christmas. The finished record became the fastest selling single in history until the arrival of the Beatles. This led to more Chipmunk singles and albums, as well as a prime-time cartoon show. For the last half century, the song has never been out of print, and has appeared in virtually every possible format: 78's, 45's, LP's, cassettes, reel-to-reels, 8-tracks, CD's, and downloads. The Chipmunks also became instantly recognized cartoon characters on all kinds of merchandise, ranking up there with Disney characters, the Muppets, and the Peanuts gang. Bagdasarian died in 1972, but his son and daughter-in-law have kept his memory alive, by creating new Chipmunk cartoons, as well as reissuing the old songs.
Mark here again. Since it's a Monday, and I can't help myself, I've included three more versions of this song. After the original version, you hear a clip of the song at half-speed, so you can hear just how Bagdasarian acted the three parts. Then, just for giggles, I sped it up a lot, so David Seville sounds like a Chipmunk himself. Finally, The Lost Dogs bring in some recording tricks of their own, and manage to make new, genuinely funny comedy out of a decades-old novelty song.
4 comments:
If you haven't heard it, Rosie Thomas' new remake of this song adds a bunch of verses, slows the whole thing down, and turns it into something quite stunning and delicate. Startlingly good; available here.
But do you have the version w/ Canned Heat? Now THAT'S some magic right there.
Thanks for both suggestions. I actually heard the Canned Heat version for the first time a couple of hours after I'd posted this. And it's.... um, okay? I guess. I like Theodore's joke "They really turn me on, is the expression, I believe."
I like me some Canned Heat.
The Canned Heat version is brilliant for its utter inanity. Why the hell is Canned Heat even doing a song w/ the Chipmunks?
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