As far as cool animated characters go, Alvin and the Chipmunks rule. They’ve been rocking with great tunes and fun adventures for fifty years. This December, three generations who’ve grown up hearing “The Chipmunks Song” at Christmas will get to see their favorite rodents, alongside Jason Lee as Dave Seville, in live action/CGI. 

Their creator, Ross Bagdasarian, wrote songs starting in the late 1940s. He began his major work, The Chipmunks, with a speed changing tape recorder in his basement. Before going to see the new movie, here are a few things you should know about him.

What inspired Bagdasarian’s songs? His most well known songs, “The Witch Doctor” and “The Chipmunk Song” were literally right in front of him. Sitting at his desk, with his new tape recorder, Bagdasarian was stuck, trying to think of a new song. While sketching ideas, he noticed a book called Duel with the Witch Doctor on his desk and wrote a song about love. He then added comedic relief with the song’s bit of gibberish in the chorus, a teasing gab at his uncle who had just moved to Walla Walla, Washington.

With such a giant success, Liberty Records asked Bagdasarian to write another song using the squeaky voice from his speed changing tape recorder. The idea he needed came in the form of his persistent four-year-old son. Always asking about Christmas, his son was worried that he couldn’t behave until present-time. 

While recording what would become “The Chipmunk Song,” he added characters with different voices. However, at this point, he wasn’t sure what they would be. He wracked his brain for the perfect character, a rabbit, a butterfly, perhaps a potato bug. Driving through Yosemite, considering his options, a tiny chipmunk jumped onto the road and stood on its hind legs bravely starring down the two-ton car. Bagdasarian loved the tenacity of that little chipmunk, and he had his star.

Following years of successful song writing, he created a television show. The Alvin Show debuted in 1961 on CBS. He included zany secondary characters to accompany his chipmunks and supplied voices for many of them. Bagdasarian infused his sense of humor through the show, as well as his preferences. One very important thing to him was that the show not be violent. Bagdasarian felt that cartoons had become too violent and preferred humor to be less painful and destructive. While other cartoons routinely blew each other up; his chipmunks maintained a comical, musical variety show.

Combining ingenuity, moral value, and quick wit, Bagdasarian struck gold. Alvin and the Chipmunks gained worldwide fame in the late 1950s, and though their momentum slows, they have retained an integral part in American childhood. The new movie has quite a reputation to live up to, and probably will.

Check out Alvin and the Chipmunks’ website and read two other articles about the chipmunks on Scoop here and here.