As we all know, songwriter-singer Ross Bagdasarian had a monster hit when under the name David Seville, he recorded "The Chipmunk Song," the record that introduced Alvin, Simon and Theodore to the world. That was in late 1958. Some folks don't know that that wasn't the first record or even the second he did employing the "sped voice" trick. The first, released earlier in '58, was also a huge success. It was called "Witch Doctor" and it was a number one hit for a few weeks there. He quickly followed it with another tune with a sped-up voice called "Bird on My Head." That was not a hit. Then came the Chipmunks…and thereafter, Mr. Basdasarian-Seville pretty much did nothing else on vinyl but Chipmunks for the rest of his life. They re-released some of his earlier records but he was too busy with Alvin, Simon and Theodore to do other things.
Here he is on Ed Sullivan's show in '58 doing a lip-sync to "Witch Doctor." Performers usually sang live on Ed's show but obviously that wasn't possible with the sped-up voice in there. I always think it's funny when a performer lip-syncs on TV to a record that has a fade at the end. They never seem to know when to stop moving their lips and you often see them stop, then realize they should still be flapping their gums. Here, Sullivan's live orchestra chimes in with a finale note and you can see a little look of relief on Mr. Bagdasarian's face that, as rehearsed I'm sure, they came in at just the right moment to get him out of that predicament. I will not pretend I understand the visual imagery they cooked up for this presentation but I think they got that way out of sync.
