Chipmunks, Technical Question about Early Recordings

I'd never heard the Chipmunks in stereo until I got the Christmas albums on CD a few years ago.

On many of the tracks, the Chipmunks are in one speaker and David Seville is in the other. The orchestra is either in the center or spread out in stereo.

This got me wondering, how many tracks did they have, and did they pull this off? David Seville did all three of the Chipmunk voices, right? The fact that they are generally in one speaker might suggest that they were bounced to a single track? Did they end up synching more than one machine?

Anyone have any info?

 

This thread inspired me to post "Hey Jude" by said musicians. Outstanding version I say. 3 cheers for Chipmunks



Chipmunks AC/DC Highway to hell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I73UPtTthtQ

 

I believe I read somewhere that his first experiments were done at home on a reel-to-reel tape machine he'd bought with his family's last couple hundred dollars, so I would guess it to have been two tracks -- I'm not sure what Liberty Records had at the time, two or maybe three tracks? I imagine there must have been quite a bit of bouncing.

I can tell you that for many of the songs on the early albums, there are differences between the mono and stereo versions where the David Seville character's dialogue is a different take in both versions. For instance, in "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer," he says "try and get along without me if you can" in mono, but "try and get along without me if you possibly can" in stereo. This may be a clue to the recording process (?). I think this is pretty much true for any song on the first three albums (Let's All Sing, Sing Again, Around The World) which features the David Seville character. Then there is the one song everyone knows, "The Chipmunk Song," where in the original mono mix (as heard on the original single as well as mono pressings of Let's All Sing With The Chipmunks and Christmas With The Chipmunks), the Chipmunk vocals (on at least the first few lines) are different from the stereo mixes (and for some bizarre reason, also the fake stereo versions featured on the stereo pressings of those two albums).

I'm not sure of the specifics, but later on, I think other singers may have done one or more of the Chipmunk voices. There is a photo on the back cover of the 1965 album The Chipmunks Sing With Children which shows a few adults singing into a microphone (IIRC). And the next album after that (Chipmunks 'a-Go-Go) might not even feature Ross Bagdasarian (David Seville) at all. (If that's the case, he was back for the single "Sorry About That Herb"/"Apple Picker" on the Dot Records label and the last two albums on the Sunset budget label.)

 

Thank you for your response! I'd NEVER EVEN HEARD of that single "Sorry About That Herb," but I just played it on YouTube. Brilliant!

Also, it had never occurred to me that there may be other singers' voices on the later Chipmunk albums. Other than the Christmas CD, which I of course play at the holidays, the only Chipmunks vinyl I've occasionally spun in recent years is the first three albums. These three are the best, and you could easily get a very solid compilation of the good Ross B. originals from these first three.

I'd never noticed about the different takes of David Seville scripts between the mono and stereo, but as you suggest, that totally makes sense from a technical standpoint, i.e., they could save a track by having his spoken parts flown in separately on the stereo and mono mixes, and also increase panning options for the stereo mixes.

Very interesting stuff, thank you!

 

Interesting questions and I don't have answers. I can offer this however...

 

Can you clarify? I don't know the details of recording with 35mm mag film, who Ron Furmanek is, and/or how he was chased away.

 

Ron Furmanek is an audio producer/archivist who works (or has worked) for EMI. He did the stereo remix for a video release of the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour (in the pre-DVD era) and produced the EMI Legendary Masters series of compilation CDs. He also created the best stereo mix of the original "Chipmunk Song" from 1958 as well as the Canned Heat "Chipmunk Song" for an EMI various artists CD called Legends Of Christmas Past. He's done all kinds of archival music projects. I'd love to hear his stories. Isn't he also supposed to have mastered a Chipmunks comp for the Legendary Masters series which ended up not being released?

 

What a great question!
I love this forum.

 

Off the bat, if David Seville was on one side, the chipmunks were on the other and the band was in the middle, that was at least 4 tracks for the mix. I think for this recording to be done (or ones like it) the tape machine had to be at least 4 tracks. One track with the music, two to bounce vocals from and one to bounce those 2 vocals to. Then once you have the two or three part harmonies on the bounce track, the last track (Chipmunks owner) was recorded. I think thats the only way to do it and still have isolation of those vocals for separation like you heard. It really depends on where and when the song was recorded, to know what tape machines were in studio at the time. For example, "The Christmas Song" was recorded in 1958, I dont think that 4 tracks were available then, but I dont know for certain. And if they werent, I really wonder how Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. recorded all those tracks bouncing back and forth on 2 one track machines without severe generation loss.

 

I'm am sorry to hear and was unaware of Ron's departure.

 

Your post makes sense. But also read the earliest posts about the differences between the David Seville character takes from mono to stereo. There is a suggestion that, because of the differences, maybe his parts were flown in live while mixing certain tracks. This would mean that his spoken parts may not have always been on the multi track masters, to save tracks. This is a hypothesis, nothing definite.

 

Actually since David had a different part on the stereo tracks, it could have been a different take of the song, or they used a stereo mix that had a new vocal overdubbed to it. Its spelled out in this Patsy Cline Thread:
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...pe-patsy-cline-matrix-info-stereo-etc.390651/

 

An old thread on Chipmunks mentions 3-track, not sure if tape or film mag.

 

The second scenario would make more sense. Given the complexity of making these records, with Bagdasarian recording all three vocal parts at glacial tempos, I can't imagine that there would be too many alternate takes of Chipmunk records. There are clearly two different sets of vocals for "The Chipmunk Song," but I'm not sure about the others. Then again, I haven't listened to these records carefully since I was around 7 or 8.

 

Thanks guys. This is a wonderful, informative thread.

 

I compiled a Chipmunks and David Seville anthology that a label tried to license from EMI years ago, but EMI wouldn't allow it. Apparently, Bagdasarian has something in his contract that prevents the Chipmunks stuff and his solo recordings from being packaged together.

 

That is too bad. A compilation of his best solo stuff, along the with the originals from the first three Chipmunks albums, would be a lot of fun.

I'm curious, did you have a track list in mind, and if so, would you be able to share it?

 

I've played several Chipmunks songs at half-speed (what is WRONG with me!?!), and it sounded to me like Alvin was Dave (Ross Bagdasarian, Sr), and Simon and Theodore were other performers. But Wikipedia says Ross played all three, at least at first. He was probably doing character voices and that fooled me.

God, I hope I resist the urge to check again when I get home.

 

I think he was exaggerating his voice for the other two characters. I don't have a turntable that plays 16 RPM. I could slow everything down in ProTools, but I haven't reached that level of obsession (yet).

 

My (long ago) comparison was done on reel-to-reel, recording at 7.5 and playing back at 3.75.

 

I looked at Wikipedia too. What amazed me is that it’s Ross Bagdasarian who’s on screen playing the piano in that little scene which is Alfred Hitchcock’s cameo in “Rear Window.” And Bagdasarian wrote the little piano tune (called “Lisa”) which you can hear playing in the background throughout most of the film. On top of that, he co-wrote Rosemary Clooney’s “Come on-a My House” with his cousin William Saroyan. That guy got around…!

 

I didn't think I'd be able to find it, but I did. The track list was heavily skewed toward chart hits.

1. Alfi & Harry - "The Trouble With Harry" (Liberty 55008, 1956) #44 Pop
2. Music of David Seville - "Armen's Theme" (Liberty 55041, 1956) #42 Pop (#34 Cash Box pop)
3. David Seville - "Gotta Get To Your House" (Liberty 55079, 1957) #77 Pop
4. David Seville - "Witch Doctor" (Liberty 55132, 1958) #1 Pop/#1 R&B
5. David Seville - "The Bird On My Head" (Liberty 55140, 1958) #34 Pop
6. David Seville - "Little Brass Band" (Liberty 55153, 1958) #78 Pop
7. The Chipmunks with David Seville- "The Chipmunk Song" (Liberty 55168, 1958) #1 Pop/#5 R&B
8. David Seville & The Chipmunks - "Alvin's Harmonica" (Liberty 55179, 1959) #3 Pop
9. David Seville - "Judy" (Liberty 55193, 1959) #86 Pop
10. David Seville & The Chipmunks - "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" (Liberty 55200, 1959) #16 Pop/#29 R&B
11. David Seville & The Chipmunks - "Alvin's Orchestra" (Liberty 55233, 1960) #33 Pop
12. David Seville & The Chipmunks - "(She'll Be) Coming Round The Mountain" (Liberty 55246, 1960)
#96 Cashbox
13. David Seville & The Chipmunks - "Alvin For President" (Liberty 55277, 1960)
14. David Seville & The Chipmunks - "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer" (Liberty 55289, 1960)
#21 Pop
15. David Seville & The Chipmunks - "The Alvin Twist" (Liberty 55424, 1962) #40 Pop
16. David Seville & The Chipmunks - "Alvin's All Star Chipmunk Band" (Liberty 55544, 1963)
17. David Seville & The Chipmunks - "Eefin' Alvin" (Liberty 55632, 1963)
18. The Chipmunks - "All My Loving" (Liberty 55734, 1964) #134 Pop
19. Ross Bagdasarian - "Come On-A My House" (Liberty 55837, 1965)
20. The Chipmunks with Canned Heat - "The Chipmunk Song" (Liberty 56079, 1968)