December 19, 1958…’The Chipmunk Song’ Tops The Record Charts
Did you know that David Seville was the stage name for Ross Bagdasarian?
Bagdasarian was both creator and voice of The Chipmunks. The year before he had a hit with ‘The Witch Doctor’. The tape machine Bagdasarian used to record his novelties was the variable speed, Tape-O-Matic “Voice of Music” reel-to-reel recorder. The key words here are variable speed. People tried to emulate his sound, but without the variable speed function, you just couldn’t get there.
Aside from being the top selling song at Christmas of 1958, it won two Grammys, one of which was for technology. This video includes some of the 1958 footage of Seville performing the song and is mixed with some later video and audio from their animated cartoon show. Enjoy, share and sing along! I know you know the words! -Bobby Ellerbee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whY9MKlvisI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whY9MKlvisIMy 3rd fan made Chipmunk video featuring clips from various Chipmunks Christmas special episodes and shows where David Seville and The Chipmunks celebrate Ch…
The audio for this version is not the original, but is considerably more recent, recorded long after Bagdasarian Sr. died.
I read where the famous gold star studios and engineer stan ross was actually the genius behind the record probably using a tape o matic with numerous other ampex machines and a lot of overdubs, given it was ALL Ross on the song. I`ve dubbed the song on one of my reel machine at 15ips and played it back at 7.5 and it`s pretty obvious it is Ross.
I`ve searched online trying to find details as to how it was done, but seems it was a closely guarded secret or lost over time. shame really. I can do it in adobe audition quite easily these days.
yes, the audio on the video is not original…I did a quick search, and no vdeos I found have the actual original audio.
some years ago I have a CD that has the original mixed in stereo, so makes me wonder if there was a 3-4 track master somewhere. although not common, that technology existing in 1958
not the 58 performance, but the original audio…and seems to be the stereo mix I mentioned (chipmunk voice panning at the start-chipmunk double tracked)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7eF14pOYzc
I had a VM Tape-O-Matic taking up space in my garage for years. Should have kept it but the idea of restoring it and changing the belts did not appeal to me.
I have a remake version of, Witch Doctor, with David and the Chipmunks.
My uncle was a friend of Bagdasarian’s and was an investor in the Chipmunk empire. Apparently it was very profitable.
I was 13 years old at the time, we tried to do this with two ordinary tape recorders with marginal results.
I got my first record player that uear at the tender age of 2 and that was the first record playrd upon it