The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be La

Christmas music isn’t Christmas music without Alvin and the “Christmas Don’t Be Late”. .

"Christmas, Christmastime is near
Time for toys and time for cheer
We've been good, but we can't last
Hurry Christmas, hurry fast
Want a plane that loops the loop
Me, I want a hula-hoop
We can hardly stand the wait
Please, Christmas, don't be late"

The fictional singing group won five Grammy Awards, an American Music Award, a Golden Reel Award, and three Kids Choice Awards in total. Ross Bagdasarian (1919 – 1972), the group’s creator and band member, sang under the name David Seville. He enjoyed success with several novelty songs in the late 1950s.The Chipmunk’s success began with the novelty song “The Witch Doctor”. It was released on April 1, 1958, and reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. That song is the story of a man seeking help from a witch doctor in order to impress the woman he has fallen in love with.
The witch doctor used the playful nonsensical line “Oo ee, oo ah ah, ting tang, walla walla bing bang.” It was a love chant hilariously delivered in squeaky high-pitched voice. That voice was his first experiment with speeding up the playback of an audio track.
“The Witch Doctor” became a cultural phenomenon and many believe saved its record label, Liberty Records, founded in 1955, from declaring bankruptcy. Naturally, they wanted another hit. In June 1958, David Seville released “The Bird on My Head” where he sang a duet with his sped-up voice as the bird. It peaked at #34. Because of the successes of those songs, Bagdasarian decided to incorporate his innovative tape-speed technique as voices of regular characters in his songs. Those songs’ successes eventually led to the creation of the chipmunks.
“The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)” was released on November 17, 1958. By December 22, 1958, it had reached #1 on the Billboards charts and stayed there for four weeks. It was the first Christmas song to hit the #1 spot on the main US singles chart. The novelty song sold 4.5 million copies in seven weeks. Before the year ended Bagdasarian, as David Seville, performed with the Chipmunks on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Here is how it all began for The Chipmunks:

In 1956, even though he had composed several successful songs for other artists, Ross Bagdasarian was a struggling musical artist with only $200 to his name. He took a gamble and spent $190 on a top-of-the-line V-M Voice Of Music Reel to Reel Tape Recorder, which could change tape speeds. Then he wrote a song, “ The Witch Doctor” and utilized the variable speed feature of the recorder in a way that hadn’t been widely used.
After the success of “The Witch Doctor”, David Seville released a follow-up single “The Bird on My Head” where he sang a duet with his sped-up voice as the imaginary bird. It peaked at #34. Because of their success, he decided to incorporate his innovative tape-speed technique as the voices of regular characters in his songs. The use of the sped-up voice became his signature style. Listeners apparently wanted more of his type of novelty songs.
Bagdasarian was looking to create another novelty hit using his squeaky voices. He also wanted personalities to match the squeaky voices his technique produced. Because Christmas was near he initially thought maybe they’d be reindeer (as their debut would be on a Christmas single), or gophers, or possibly even ostriches. But Fate stepped in.
Inspiration came while on a drive through Sequoria National Park and an encounter with a chipmunk. It was standing on its hind legs in the middle of the road, refusing to move. Bagdasarian admired the “audacity” of the chipmunk. It prompted the idea of a group of singing rodents with impulsive and mischievous personalities. His squeaky-voiced singers became chipmunks.
Alvin and the Chipmunks became the first ever virtual band. They were the humanlike chipmunk brothers (Alvin, the troublemaker, Simon, the intelligent one, Theodore, the giddy and shy one). “The Chipmunks” were named after executives at Liberty records.
“The Chipmunks” became Seville’s adopted sons with Seville as their manager. ”The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)” was their first released song. It’s about the chipmunks expressing their wishes for gifts as they eagerly await the arrival of Christmas. Seville is conducting the Chipmunks as they record the song. But, as we all know, Alvin causes trouble by going off script, resulting in Seville having to yell “ALVIN” several times. The Chipmunks voices were all provided by Bagdasarian and played on top of each other when the Chipmunks sang together.
Did you know
• One phrase in the chorus has Alvin wishing for the year’s hot new toy, a hula hoop.
• “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)” broke into The Hot 100 chart several times between 1958 and 1962. It remained the only holiday-themed song to chart at #1 until Miriah Carey’s “All I want For Christman Is You” in 2019.
• The inspiration for the song came from Bagdasarian’s youngest son, who had a habit of asking in September if it was Christmas yet. If his son was asking, he figured other kids were probably asking too.
• The song developed through three versions before Bagdasarian’s family gave it the OK. The first version was instrumental. The second was titled “In A Village Park”. The third was “The Chipmunk Song.”



I bet everybody who has ever heard the song now hears David Seville screaming “ALVIN!”
MERRY CHRISTMAS!