Alvin's Harmonica
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"Alvin's Harmonica" | ||||
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Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. | ||||
Producer(s) | Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. | |||
The Chipmunks singles chronology | ||||
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"Alvin's Harmonica" is a song from the fictional musical group,
The Recording Process
A contemporary writeup describes Bagdasarian’s production sequence:
“It took nine perfect tapes, or tracks, and three days’ work in the recording studio, to transfer this work from the composer’s head to acetate. First, having set down a melody, he recorded it a simplified orchestra—two saxophones, four rhythm instruments—at normal speed. Then on a second tape he recorded two pianos playing at half speed. Played back at normal speed, the pianos had a tinkly, mandolinlike sound. Bagdasarian made a third tape of his own normal voice at normal speed, shouting ‘Alvin!’, ‘Stop that!’ and the like. The fourth tape was Simon, the lowest voiced of the three chipmunks in the song. His lines were recorded in a normal voice at half speed, then played back at normal speed to produce a squeaky tone. By this time the control booth of the recording studio was filling up with tape like a cauldron of spaghetti, so the first four tapes were combined on a fifth. The sixth tape was a variation for Theodore, the laughing chipmunk: ‘Ha…Ha…Ha’ spoken carefully at half speed in a tone pitched slightly higher than Simon’s. The seventh was Alvin’s, also at half speed and pitched highest of all. An eighth track was added for the harmonica, normal speed. Finally one master tape combined all the others in one glorious tonal conglomeration.”[1]
Chart performance
After the group's previous single, "
"Alvin's Harmonica" sold more than 500,000 singles making it a certified gold record.[2]
"Alvin's Harmonica" re-entered the charts in 1961 and 1962, peaking at No. 73 and No. 87, respectively.
Track listing
All tracks are written by
No. | Title | Credited artist | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Alvin's Harmonica" | David Seville and The Chipmunks | 2:39[3] |
2. | "Mediocre" | The Music of David Seville | 1:50[3] |
References
- ^ Alexander, Shana. “’Alvin!’: Composer’s yells at son inspire another chipmunk hit.” LIFE, 23 March 1959, 44.
- ISBN 0-8230-7690-3.
- ^ a b "Alvin's Harmonica"/"Mediocre", Discogs.com