Ooooo-eee, oooo-ah-ah, ting-tang, walla- walla bing-bang
It remains one of the most unforgettable albeit bizarrely peppy and somewhat unsettling lyrics in the American songbook.
It is, of course, the chorus line from the 1958 hit “Witch Doctor,” written by Ross Bagdasarian (under the stage name David Seville) and sung by a trio of proto-chipmunks, Theodore, Simon and the iconoclastic Alvin.
Get ready to hear it again.
The boys are back, badder than ever, thanks to the efforts of Ross Bagdasarian Jr. and his wife, Janice Karman, who have spent the last four years engineering a comeback for Alvin and the Chipmunks. In the works is a string of DVDs, holiday specials for TV and even a feature film.
“We had to reawaken (the characters),” Bagdasarian said. “It took a lot of work because we had to find a way to reinvigorate the characters after all this time. Nobody cares whether it’s easy or hard to do, they just care about whether it works.”
A major part of the process was regaining the rights to the Chipmunks brand which has sold more than $750 million worth of merchandise to date from Universal. The studio had bought a controlling $12.5 million, 35 percent stake in 1996.
Bagdasarian Productions filed a $100 million lawsuit against Universal in 2000 for breach of contract, claiming Universal buried the property and let revenue on Chipmunks-related products shrink from $4 million a year to $70,000. The suit also claimed that Universal “undertook the systematic destruction of a family owned and operated business.”
“Before we went to Universal these were our only children. Then, suddenly you are in a home or orphanage with thousands of children, and it’s very hard for the studios to give a lot of attention to each one,” Bagdasarian said. “Everything turned out great in the end, but it’s an experience I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. It was like a custody battle.”
Universal settled the suit in 2002, giving Bagdasarian Productions the rights to the Chipmunks and all related properties, save two direct-to-video titles that Universal kept the 1999 movie “Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein” and “Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman,” released in 2000.
Last year, Bagdasarian Productions entered a five-year deal with Viacom Inc.’s Paramount for distribution of Chipmunks DVD releases in North America, including last December’s “A Chipmunk Christmas,” “The Chipmunk Adventure,” slated for release on May 23, and Halloween and Christmas releases.
“Nostalgic brands have made a comeback the Chipmunks brand caters not only to new fans but the parents of 2 to 11 year-old kids who grew up with it,” said Elizabeth Bohannon, Paramount’s vice president of kids and family marketing for home entertainment, adding that holiday themed titles do very well.
Bohannon said Paramount was “very happy” with the success of the Christmas DVD, which brought in several million dollars and will be re-released as a special edition this Christmas for the special’s 25th anniversary.
The studio is also working with News Corp.’s Fox Family and Fox 2000 Pictures on a live-action Chipmunks movie, which is in development. Bagdasarian saw an early draft of the script this month, penned in part by longtime “The Simpsons” contributor John Vitti, and said the movie is likely to be released 2008 the Chipmunks’ 50th anniversary. The company is also planning to release re-mastered 50th anniversary DVD titles from Bagdasarian’s library, including early episodes of “The Alvin Show.”
Christmas kickoff
That Bagdasarian and his wife think of the Chipmunks as family is not surprising.
His dad was living in Van Nuys in 1958, and was an accomplished songwriter with his cousin William Saroyan he had written a No. 1 hit for Rosemary Clooney in 1951 called “Come On-a-My-House” but had hit some bumps by 1958.
“My father had $200 in the bank, three kids to take care of and a mortgage payment to make, and somehow he recorded the ‘Witch Doctor’ song,” Bagdasarian said. He admits he wasn’t all that impressed.
“It wasn’t, ‘Oh, my dad is famous,'” Bagdasarian recalls. “It was more, ‘It’s 100 degrees and I get to have a swimming pool now!’ ”
The elder Bagdasarian had sung at a very deliberate speed into a tape recorder running at half speed, then replayed it at normal speed to create what would become the “Chipmunk sound.” When “Witch Doctor” sold 1.5 million copies and landed two engineering Grammys, Bagdasarian decided to follow up seven months later with “The Chipmunk Song.”
The Christmas tune formally launched the Chipmunks. The single sold more than 4 million copies in seven weeks and CBS did an animated prime time special called “The Alvin Show.”
After the elder Bagdasarian died in 1972, Ross Jr. and Karman established Bagdasarian Productions in 1981. Starting with NBC’s television special “A Chipmunk Christmas” that same year, they have been the voices behind the Chipmunks movies, television specials and cartoon series. In 1983, NBC picked up “The Alvin Show” as a Saturday morning cartoon, which ran from 1983 to 1991. In all, the Chipmunks records have sold 44 million copies.
Family values
“We’re not just the voices of the characters,” Bagdasarian said. “In a real, true way we are the characters,” Bagdasarian said. “So much of it comes from our own lives.”
His father told Shana Alexander, for a Life Magazine story in the 1960s, that the Alvin character was based on his dealing with Ross Jr.’s brother, Adam. He had been pestering the elder Bagdasarian about Christmas in September.
Karman now has five episodes of a preschool show in development, called “Little Alvin,” featuring puppet versions of the Chipmunks characters. Bagdasarian said the project is nearing completion and the company will shop it later this year.
After the dispute with Universal, Bagdasarian said he and Karman are cautious about choosing the partners needed to build the Chipmunks business back up.
“We’re looking for partners who share our commitment and enthusiasm for the brand.”
