The furry creatures hit record stores again with “Chipmunk Punk,” followed by country songs in “Urban Chipmunk,” and then by a Saturday morning animated series. There were no takers until, as family lore goes, a bored radio DJ on the East Coast sped up a Blondie song and called it the Chipmunks version. with his future wife in 1978 to try to revive the ‘munks. His will passed the Chipmunks franchise to his wife and three children. Bagdasarian rejected Walt Disney’s advances, the son says, and got busy doing Chipmunk versions of everything from the Twist to Beatles hits.īagdasarian, a lifelong smoker, was found dead of a heart attack on Super Bowl Sunday in 1972. So was born a one-hit wonder that would endure for nearly 50 years.Įvil music executives, take note: Bagdasarian says the key to his father’s success was his insistence on owning his own master recordings and copyrighting the Chipmunks characters. In several months, it sold more than 4 million and spawned a massive merchandise trade. That song’s catchy, sped-up “oh ee oh ah ah” chorus, combined with Christmas pleadings from Ross’ youngest son Adam, inspired the Chipmunks’ first song, an instant hit. He wrote tunes for Rosemary Clooney and Dean Martin before hitting it big on his own with “Witch Doctor” in 1958. In real life, Seville was the stage moniker for Bagdasarian, who became a Hollywood songwriter after previous jobs as an off-Broadway director and actor (he’s the piano player in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window”). The Chipmunks enter theaters Friday for the first time, in the live action-CG holiday comedy “Alvin and the Chipmunks.” Jason Lee of “My Name is Earl” stars as David Seville, a struggling Los Angeles songwriter who discovers the ‘munks and later rescues them from an evil music executive. and the stubborn, hard-nosed business sense that’s kept Alvin, Simon and Theodore in the family.
Both work in a separate office building off a downhill path, which houses four Apple iMacs, gold Chipmunks records, Grammys, branded bubble gum, toothbrush holders, caps, at least one eight-track tape and dozens of CDs.Īll wrought from a single kooky musical idea, “The Christmas Song,” dreamed up by Bagdasarian’s father, Ross Sr. lives here in the wealthy Montecito area with his wife Janice Karman. The house that Chipmunks built sits atop a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
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