After the success of "Witch Doctor" in early 1958, Liberty Records asked Bagdasarian to create another successful novelty record. He then came up with three singing chipmunks named after Liberty Records executives.[4] In the song, the chipmunks Alvin, Simon, and Theodore express their lack of patience for the arrival of Christmas Day. "The Chipmunk Song" has been a staple on the Billboard charts and saved Liberty Records from near-bankruptcy.[5] It has been featured in many movies and television shows, including a prominent appearance in the successful 2007 live-action film Alvin and the Chipmunks. The song helped launch the multimillion-dollar Alvin and the Chipmunks brand and has been ranked by Billboard and The New York Times as one of the greatest Christmas songs of all time.[6][7][8]
In the early stages of his career, Ross Bagdasarian, a Broadway actor who'd been a pianist in Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 masterpiece Rear Window, was down to his last $200 when he purchased a specialized tape recorder that could adjust the speed of recordings. Experimenting with the device, he discovered a technique in which he recorded his slowly-sung voice at half speed and then played it back at normal speed, creating a high-pitched squeaky voice. This technique was pioneered on his successful 1958 novelty song “Witch Doctor”. In the song, the narrator asks a witch doctor for romantic advice because he has fallen in love with a girl; the witch doctor responds in a high-pitched squeaky voice with a nonsense incantation which creates an earworm. He used this technique on another pre-Chipmunks track, "Bird on My Head."[9][10][11] The song held number one for three weeks in the Billboard Hot 100 chart,[12][13] ranked by Billboard as the No. 4 song for 1958.[14][15]
The Chipmunks
Bagdasarian later conceived the idea of Alvin and the Chipmunks, who were named, as an inside joke, after executives at Liberty Records; Alvin (named after Al Bennett), Simon (named after Simon Waronker), and Theodore (Ted Keep).[16][17][18] After its release on November 11 of that year, "The Chipmunk Song" remained on the charts for 13 weeks, including four weeks at number one. The song earned three Grammy Awards and was later adapted into a short for The Alvin Show (1961–1962). In 2007, following the release of the live-action Alvin and the Chipmunks film, the song reappeared on the charts nearly five decades after its initial success. Bagdasarian performed as both David Seville and the voices of all three Chipmunks.[19]
Context and performance
The song was released on November 17, 1958. Although initially featured on American Bandstand's "Rate-A-Record" segment with the lowest possible rating of 35 across the board,[20] "The Chipmunk Song" became a number one hit by New Year's Day.[21] One phrase in the chorus has Alvin wishing for a hula hoop, which was that year's hot new toy.[22][23][24] The novelty record was highly successful, selling 4.5 million copies in seven weeks,[17] eventually selling 12 million copies.[25] Bagdasarian performed the song at The Ed Sullivan Show.[26]
As of 2011, total sales were estimated at 867,000 copies, making "The Chipmunk Song" among the top 20 Best-Selling Christmas songs of all time.[27][28][29] The song was the 23rd most performed Christmas song of the 20th century.[30]
The song was certified Gold by the RIAA as one of the best-selling physical Christmas singles in the United States.[44] Between 1958 and 1962, the single re-entered the Hot 100 several times, peaking at No. 41 in 1958, No. 45 in 1960, and No. 39 in 1962. (Starting in 1963, Billboard would list recurrent Christmas songs on a separate chart.) The song charted on the Hot Digital Songs for the first time in 2005, peaking at No. 35. With the release and popularity of the live-action film Alvin and the Chipmunks in 2007, "The Chipmunk Song" re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 70. At the same time, a remixed version of the song that appears on the Chipmunks' 2007 album (and soundtrack to the film) Alvin and the Chipmunks: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, peaked at No. 66.
