We’ll go nuts here one more time with Ross Bagdasarian and the chipmunks. I usually don’t bother with “official” Web sites, because they’re often long on hype and short on useful information, but Ross Jr.’s is an exception. It has plenty of hype, but it’s also a must-see for the fascinating story of his dad’s winning gamble on the purchase of a home tape recorder in 1958. Click the picture or here to go there.
The song that saved Ross from financial ruin was “The Witch Doctor.” It’s on the audio player, followed by a half-speed version that will play automatically.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/JAN07/WitchDoctor.mp3,http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/JAN07/WitchDoctorSlow.mp3]Bagdasarian later re-recorded “The Witch Doctor” in a chipmunk version. It’s in stereo, making it possible for me to isolate the right channel with the chipmunks, as you’ll hear in the second cut.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/JAN07/WitchDoctorRemake.mp3,http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/JAN07/WitchDoctorRemakeSlow.mp3]Something I don’t know is which came first in 1958 — “The Witch Doctor,” or Sheb Wooley’s “The Purple People Eater.” I’ll have to count on my Pop Musicologist best buddy, Dennis F. Rogers, for assistance on that question. To spare you from listening to the entire song run at half speed, I’ve spliced a couple of the parts with the chipmunk voice.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/JAN07/PurplePeopleEater.mp3,http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/JAN07/ShebWooley.mp3]What’s interesting to me is that the slowly-spoken voice (I’ll assume it was Sheb’s) doesn’t work very well when sped up. The trick isn’t as easy as Bagdasarian made it sound. Also, Ross had a unique voice anyway. Somehow, he just sounded like a nice guy you’d want to know. Sort of like Tom Hanks, come to think of it.
Whew! Thanks for the info, Denny. I couldn’t imagine that Bagdasarian would have been “inspired” by the likes of Sheb Wooley! But I’m surprised by how closely the two records were released.
Oooh, good question! Which came first? “The Witch Doctor” or “The Purple People Eater”? My guess, before checking the charts, was “The Witch Doctor”. Both came out in 1958, both rocketed up the charts in no time flat and both went to #1. “The Witch Doctor” hit #1 on April 28, 1958, in only its 3rd week on the Billboard Charts, and stayed at the top of “The Top 100” for two more weeks. “The Purple People Eater” by Sheb Wooley made #1 on June 9, 1958 its 2nd week on the Billboard Charts. “The Witch Doctor” was still there, at #3 and in fact remained in the Top 10 for another four weeks. So, they were hits at the same time, with “The Witch Doctor” debuting seven weeks earlier than “The Purple People Eater”. What a great time for sped-up novelties! “The Purple People Eater” did consume enough vinyl to stay at #1 for six weeks! In case you may be wondering, the song that held the top spot between the two crazy novelties was “All I Have To Do Is Dream” by the Everly Brothers – a slight change of pace, to be sure.
Whoa. You’ve gotta listen to the slow version of the Witch Doctor remake. I think Tom Hanks owes a lot to Ross. It’s so obvious, but it never occurred to me before. That’s the voice of Woody from “Toy Story!”