“Me, I want a hula hoop.”
“The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)’ is the Christmas classic that kids love, and adults hate to adore. A holiday staple that can make the ears bleed, it is also as warm and familiar as your favorite sweater. It’s been a staple in our holiday landscape for over sixty five years, and is immediately identified by multiple generations of youngsters, and the young at heart, worldwide. But, at the core of this ear splitting novelty tune is a beautiful holiday song filled with charm and magic. Don’t believe me? Check out Kasey Musgraves’ version from her 2016 album “A Very Kasey Christmas.” It’s simply enchanting.
But even more culturally important is that “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)” was the official launching point for one of the most unusual, yet durable, musical franchises of all time. Alvin, Simon and Theodore, better known collectively as Tne Chipmunks, have been entertaining primarily young audiences since 1958. No matter how trends in music, media, technology and culture change, Alvin and the Chipmunks, under the watchful eye of the exasperated David Seville, have been able to successfully adapt with the times and find a new audience via a very simple gimmick – sped up vocal tracks. It’s so elementary that it’s brilliant, making The Chipmunks one of the most endearing, and enduring, novelty recording acts of all time.
Everyone who has ever owned a Chipmunk record remembers David Seville, but few know the name Ross Bagdasarian. Bagdasarian was the real David Seville, and the genius behind The Chipmunk franchise. Not only did he compose “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t be Late),” as well as all of The Chipmunks early original material, he provided the voices of Dave Seville, Alvin, Simon and Theodore, and produced and engineered all of the original recordings. A WWII veteran living in Los Angeles, Bagdasarian was a failed grape grower who turned jazz musician and tried to eke out a living as a song writer to support a young family. Realizing that the name “Bagdasarian” didn’t quite roll of the tongue, he chose the stage name “Dave Seville” because he was stationed in Seville, Spain during the war and he fell in love with the city.
Prior to The Chipmunks, Bagdasarian had a few minor successes on the pop culture radar that still resonates today, although the audience probably doesn’t realize that Dave Seville was behind these moments. In 1939 Bagdasarian and his cousin, novelist and future Pulitzer Prize Winner William Saroyan wrote the song “Come On-a Over to My House,” which became a number one Billboard hit for Rosemary Clooney for six weeks in 1951, and becoming one of her signature songs. Bagdasarian also had memorable moments working as a musician in front of the camera. In 1953, in the film “Stalag 17,” a bearded Bagdasarian sings “I Love You” during the POW Christmas party scene. A year later he’d make possibly his most memorable film appearance in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic thriller “Rear Window” as the lonely musician composing at his piano who Jimmy Stewart spies on throughout the film (in one scene, Hitchcock makes his famous cameo where he can be seen winding a clock behind Bagdasarian).
But in 1958 it’d all change for Bagdasarian when he bought a $200 tape recorder and came up with one magical phrase – “Ooh ee ooh ah ah ting tang walla walla bing bang.” Experimenting with the speed control on the tape deck, Bagdasarian came up with a gimmick where he was able to create a one man duet with himself singing in regular speed, and his sped up vocals doing the chorus. This led to him writing his first mega-hit “The Witch Doctor.” Released under the name David Seville during the hey day of the novelty record, “The Witch Doctor” was part kids song and part rock n’ roll parody, and released via Liberty Records, it became a surprise hit that went right to the number one spot on the Billboard charts and sold 1.5 million copies!
Now today many music fans remember “The Witch Doctor” as being the first Chipmunk song, but in reality, Bagdasarian had not created The Chipmunks yet. If you relisten to the song, the sped up voice is attributed to the actual “Witch Doctor,” and the record does not mention rodents of any kind anywhere in the lyrics nor on the release’s sleeve. The Chipmunks involvement in the song wouldn’t come until later, where it would be retconned to include them. If anything, “The Witch Doctor” was the first moment the “character” Dave Seville was put on the pop culture map, clearing the path for what would be his greatest creation.
With the success of “The Witch Doctor,” which was quickly becoming one of their highest selling singles of the year, Liberty Records went to Bagdasarian and wanted more of that same sped up thing. Bagdasarian told them he had been playing around with a new Christmas song he had written, and the Liberty exes said that sounded great, but as long as there was more of the sped up voices. While he had a pretty little song on his hands, Bagdasarian was left looking for a gimmick. This is when he had the brilliant idea to establish the squeaky voices as being Chipmunks, and Alvin, Simon and Theodore were born!
Today we know each of The Chipmunks for their individual attributes. Alvin, dressed in red, is the mischievous leader of the group. Simon, wearing blue and large glasses, is both the smartest and tallest of the group. Theodore, in green, is sweet and shy and plump. But these characteristics would develop slowly over time. In the beginning, Bagdasarian had only the names of the rodents, although it was established right away that Alvin was going to be a handful. The names of The Chipmunks was actually an inside joke, and they were named after the three executives at Liberty Records who wanted the record – Alvin Bennet, Simon “Si” Waronker and Theodore “Ted” Keep. Bagdasarian wrote comical dialogue for the introduction and the bridge, which introduced the audience to the concept of The Chipmunks, threw in a catchy hook for Alvin about a hula hoop, and presented it to Liberty Records. “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)” was released on November 17th, 1958 to the unsuspecting public and by New Years Day it was sitting at the number one spot on the Billboard charts. That holiday season, “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)” had sold four million copies making it the second most successful Christmas single at that time, trailing behind Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas.”
But the accolades for “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)” didn’t end there. On May 4, 1959 the very first ever Grammy Awards were presented, and Ross Bagdasarian was awarded three statues for Best Children’s Recording, Best Comedy Recording, and Best Engineering for a Non Classical Song for “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late).” This solidified the track as more than just a novelty record, but a legitimate achievement in American music.
With the success of The Chipmunks on the pop culture scene, the public wanted more. In 1959 the first full lp of Chipmunk songs, “Lets All Sing with The Chipmunks,” was released. On the album’s cover the classic look of Alvin, Simon and Theodore was not established yet, and instead an off brand trio of more realistic Chipmunks was pictured. The classic Chipmunk we know today would be a few more years away when they were redesigned by animator Joe Harris in 1961 for their first animated series, “The Alvin Show.” “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)” was included as the final track on the album, reissuing it to hungry record buyers. The album also contained the third of Seville’s Chipmunk songs to hit the Billboard chats, “Alvin’s Harmonica,” which peaked at the number three spot. Although The Chipmunks would continue to be a successful entertainment commodity and sell millions of records for decades to come, “Alvin’s Harmonica” would be the final single credited to the Chipmunks to enter the Billboard charts.
Incidentally, the follow up album released in 1960, “Sing Again with The Chipmunks,” would rerelease “The Witch Doctor” under The Chipmunk banner, which is how that first hit was retconned into The Chipmunk discography.
A perennial favorite every December, hearing the Chipmunks on the radio each Christmas became a part of the holiday soundscape very quickly, and their first full album of Christmas songs, “Christmas with the Chipmunks” was released in 1962. Now the Chipmunks that we all know and love is pictured on the cover, going through presents while Dave Seville frowns behind them. It is a famous image, and possibly the most iconic Chipmunks album cover of all time. Of course “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)” was reissued on that album as well, and it quickly became one of the best selling Christmas lps of the decade. A second album of Christmas songs “Christmas with the Chipmunks Vol. 2” was released in 1963 and now an entire catalogue of Chipmunks holiday songs were in the soundscape to delight children, while annoying adults, for Christmases to come.
Bagdasarian and his Chipmunks would do one more holiday recording in one of the strangest musical team ups of all time. In 1968 rock/blues band Canned Heat, which had huge counter culture hits with “On the Road Again” and “Going to the Country” teamed up with the Chipmunks to record a track called “The Christmas Boogie.” How this thing hasn’t become a staple of Christmas listening is beyond me because it is tons of fun and an strange delight. Alvin’s enthusiasm as he “turns on” and shrieks with Bob “Bear” Hite is amazing.
Now to be honest, as adults, the sped up novelty of The Chipmunks can be hard on the ears, and music fans seem to be cynically divided when it comes to “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late).” Although I definitely loved The Chipmunks as a child, and while I have acquired a lot of Chipmunks albums in my collection (1980’s “Chipmunk Punk,” the first recorded after Bagdasarian’s death in 1972, performed and produced by his son Ross Jr., is a personal favorite), I’ll admit that I find them fairly unlistenable, having outgrown the delight over the sped up voices long ago. But come Christmas time, when I hear “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)” all that cynicism gets drained out of my vinyl collecting hipster body and I am suddenly a little kid again, waiting for the song to come on the Christmas radio broadcasts. I love it, and I think it’s a magical recording.
