It was on this day in 1958 that Alvin, Simon and Theodore hit #1 with The Chipmunk Song. It became the first Christmas song to hit #1 in America. It remained #1 for four weeks. Christmas had been over for a month and most folks had taken down the lights and decorations, and that song was still hanging in at #1.
Influence for the song stemmed from real life events. The song was written and produced by Ross Bagdasarian (a.k.a. David Seville). Its inspiration came to him from his youngest son, Adam. It seems he had a habit of asking in September if it was Christmas yet. That got Ross thinking. He figured if his son was already asking about the holiday so early, other kids probably were too.
According to songfact.com: The song went through three versions before Bagdasarian’s family gave it the OK. The first version was an instrumental, the second was titled “In A Village Park,” and the third and winner was “The Chipmunk Song.” Bagdasarian came up with the idea for a trio of singing chipmunks after seeing one of those creatures on the road, refusing to move for his car.
Fun Fact: Ross Bagdasarian can be seen playing the piano as a struggling composer in the Alfred Hitchcock movie classic Rear Window starring Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly.
Speeding up his voice was nothing new to David Seville. He had previously recorded two singles using the pitched-up voice technique. The first was “Witch Doctor,” which went to #1 US in April 1958. On that song, the high pitched voice represented the witch doctor, not a chipmunk.
When he decided on having three separate voices for his Chipmunks, Dave took advantage of his record label. The Chipmunks were called Alvin, Simon and Theodore. They were named after Liberty Records president Al Bennett, owner Si Warnoker and the engineer on duty when it was recorded, Ted Keep.
The song would go on to win three Grammy Awards: Best Comedy Performance, Best Recording For Children, and Best Engineered Record – Non-Classical (this one went to engineer Ted Keep, the namesake for Theodore). It was also nominated for Record of the Year.
The Chipmunk Christmas albums were a big part of my childhood. My brother and I always had them playing on our record players. In 2020, I wrote about them and featured one of their songs. You can read that blog here.
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 