Starting today and for the next 11 days we’re doubling up on classic songs of the day with twelve days of Christmas songs, in addition to our normal ’60s and ’70s oldies. So today’s classic Christmas song of the day is “The Chipmunk Song,” otherwise known as “Christmas Don’t Be Late,” by the fictional animated Alvin and the Chipmunks.
Alvin and the Chipmunks were actually one guy, Ross Bagdasarian (AKA David Seville), using a variable speed tape machine. He sang all the parts low and slow then sped it all up to sound like the aforementioned yard rats.
Bagdasarian first introduced this gimmick on the 1958 hit “Witch Doctor.” His record label, Liberty Records, asked him to create another novelty record, and the result was the holiday classic, “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late),” which Bagdasarian wrote and produced. This song was released as a single in November of 1958 and it went all the way to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and sold more than 12 million copies. It also won three Grammy awards that year: Best Comedy Performance, Best Children’s Recording, and Best Engineered Record (non-classical). It was nominated for Record of the Year, being bested by the song “Volare (Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu)” by Italian singer Domenico Modugno. I bet you’re more familiar with the chipmunks’ song.
The success of “The Chipmunk Song” led Bagdasarian to create the Saturday morning cartoon, The Alvin Show, which debuted in 1961. The three chipmunk siblings—Alvin, Simon, and Theodore—were named for three executives at Liberty Records. I watched that show a lot when I was a kid.
And here’s your daily bonus video of the day, David Seville and puppet versions of the chipmunks lip synching “The Chipmunk Song” on the December 13, 1959, episode of The Ed Sullivan Show. Me, I just want a hula hoop.
