Alvin and the Chipmunks

Alvin and the Chipmunks are a fictional musical group, created by Ross Bagdasarian in 1958. The group consists of three singing chipmunks—Alvin, Simon, and Theodore—who are "managed" by their human "dad" and leader, David "Dave" Seville. In reality, "David Seville" was Ross Bagdasarian's stage name.

Related Topics:
Fictional musical group - Ross Bagdasarian - 1958 - Chipmunk

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After first being brought to life in Bagdasarian's 1950s novelty recordings under the name David Seville and the Chipmunks, the characters were an unprecedented success, and the singing Chipmunks and their manager were given life in several animated cartoon series and motion pictures. It is notable that the characters are now perceived as cartoon characters that also released some accompanying music, which is the inverse of their early existance.

Related Topics:
1950s - Animated cartoon - Motion picture

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The voices of the group were all performed by Bagdasarian, who sped up the playback to create the most-distinctive higher pitched squeaky voices. This process wasn't entirely new; Bagdasarian had also used it for a previous novelty song project "The Witch Doctor," but it was so unusual and well executed it earned the trio two Grammy Awards for engineering. Although the characters were fictional, they did release a long line of "real" albums and singles, with "The Chipmunk Song" becoming a #1 hit single in the United States. After his death in 1972, the voices of the Chipmunks were subsequently recorded by his son, Ross Bagdasarian, Jr., and his wife, Janice Karman, in all future incarnations to date. The Chipmunks themselves are named after the executives of their original record label, Liberty Records: Alvin Bennett (the president), Theodore Keep (the chief engineer), and Simon Waronker (the founder and owner).

Related Topics:
Grammy Awards - United States - 1972 - Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. - Janice Karman - Liberty Records

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~