![]() It only ran for one year, but was a success in a Saturday-morning slot. The Alvin Show premiered on prime-time television in 1961, with all voices supplied by Bagdasarian. ![]() "Alvin's Harmonica" reached number three just two months later, and Christmas reissues of "The Chipmunk Song" charted in the Top 40 over the next four years. ![]() The process yielded the number one hit "Witch Doctor" in early 1958, and the phenomenon mushroomed later that year when his Christmas gimmick single The Chipmunk Song spent four weeks at the top of the charts. He later charted two solo singles (recorded as David Seville), "Armen's Theme" and "Gotta Get to Your House." In 1958, Bagdasarian began experimenting with a novel technique - recording normal vocals but then speeding up the playback on a tape machine. Bagdasarian also worked as a songwriter, reaching the charts first in 1956, as his production of Alfi & Harry's "The Trouble with Harry" hit number 44. He came to Los Angeles in 1950, and appeared in the films Viva Zapata, Stalag 17, and Rear Window. The man who brought the Chipmunks to life, Ross Bagdasarian, was born on January 27, 1919, in Fresno, California. Possibly the most popular TV and musical cartoon of all time, Alvin & the Chipmunks enjoyed several periods of prosperity - beginning with '60s-era adolescent Baby Boomers, cresting in the '80s, when the Boomers' children were growing up, and riding the wave clear into the new millennium.
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