The story of David Seville is indeed a sad tale. A one-time seamstress, with a passion for conducting music. Coming from the out-skirts of Kingville Oklahoma, living in extreme poverty, on a dirt farm, where his mother tried to find appetizing recipes using the plentiful dirt from the farm. In a rare interview from 1955 David was quoted as saying "My mother could take the Caliche from the farm and turn it into one of the finest casserole dishes I ever ate." Having 16 brothers and sisters, money was very hard to come by. David revealed "Christmas was always hard for us, what with not a lot of money coming in from the farm. But I remember, one year, I awoke on Christmas morning and underneath the pebbles and mud that my brothers and sisters had constructed as a make-shift Christmas tree, was a present wrapped in old dixie cups and tar paper addressed to me from Santa. I pulled the tar paper off and lo and behold, the finest stick a man could ever see had been presented to me." "That stick meant more to me then all the money in the world." "I remember long days on the farm when after work, raking the dirt into piles, I would imagine myself as a conductor, conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with my stick as my baton at Carnegie Hall."
MIDDLE YEARS:
At seventeen (no not the Janis Ian song, moron ED) David with encouragement from his siblings set out to find his fame and fortune (no not the Elvis song, simpleton, ED) in California. While there he struggled to find a music publisher who shared his dream. As luck would have it one day while sitting in the offices of Liberty records, fearing another rejection, Charles Oldmann walked in with his new clients, a trio of family Sciuridae. Mr. Oldmann had been hoping to pitch his family of singing rodents to Liberty. David was taken aback by the beauty of the middle chipmunk named Theodore. "My that's a fine set of animals there, said Seville." "You want em'" Oldmann is reportedly said to have said. "Huhh?" came back the reply. "There yours, that one in the red, with the ball cap, is nothing but trouble, his name is Alvin." With that Mr. Oldmann got up and walked out of the office. Startled, David was then called into the office. Without encouragement the chipmunk's followed in. "Sir, I have a new song for you, it's called "Witch Doctor." Upon hearing the song the producer is supposedly to have said "Great song but it's missing a catchy hook." With that Alvin asked if they could take a ten minute break and come back with the missing "hook." "Alvin? what is your idea? David said." "Here's your Goddamn hook, idiot." Alvin then said "that middle part should go like this, you fuck, ooh,eeh,ooh,ah,aah,ting tang walla walla bing bang." "WOW you're absolutely right, Alvin." David said. "Of course I'm right, you stupid asshole." And with that their careers took off. Chimpmunkmania could not be contained. Selling out The Cereal Bowl in 1963 in Cambodia in a matter of 10 seconds (never mind the venue held six people is a record that stills holds today) While on a tour of the U.K in 61' it has been reported a despondent John Lennon managed to find his way backstage and pitched his song wares to David. David heard something in these amateur and primitive recordings and bought 12 of the songs, recorded them and released them in 64' Even though by this time The Beatles had become a phenomena, the release of "The Chipmunks Sing The Beatle Hits." is what has been said to be the impetus McCartney needed to record "Sgt. Pepper" However in 65' cracks began to appear. Always relegating David's songs to b-sides only (no album cuts ever) Alvin began to exhort his authority even more. After reports surfaced that Theodore and David had been caught naked together in a hotel in Montreal, the bad press was something they could not suppress. For years Simon's drug abuse rumors were now being exposed. The incident in Paris where it was reported that Simon stole one of Jimi Hendrix's guitars and sold it for smack has never been confirmed. Perhaps Simon's low point came when he was caught in the act of giving an undercover policeman head in a dark alley. In an unprecedented move Alvin then fired Simon, and brought in Simon's twin sister "Fannie" to tour and finish vocal parts for the upcoming album "The Chipmunks Sing With Children." The Chipmunks gave it one last shot with the epic song "Alvin For President" (included here) but it was all for naught. And from here it becomes the beginning of the end. Simon's life starts to drift, his duet album with Art Garfunkel registered no hits and absolutely no airplay. His collaboration with Billy Idol amounted to some unfinished demos and half baked ideas, but has yet to see the light of day. Meanwhile sick of having to deal with the negative press and rumors of being gay, Theodore committed suicide in 68' Alvin, being the trooper that he was tried to continue with David but his heart was no longer in it. He then retired in 72' He has attempted a few comebacks but they have amounted to nothing. (God this is a long fucking text....shut up I'm making this shit up as I go)
FINAL YEARS
ALVIN WILL YOU PUT THAT THING DOWN AND SING

The real story of the real Ross 'Dave Saville' Bagdasarian is almost as wild as what you have here.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard not to miss the deep impact ol' Dave had on young Frank Zappa.
Remarkably, Ross was also directly related by blood to William Saroyan.
Ross' production techniques using varying tape speeds, heavy manual analog overdubs, early noise reduction etc. may no longer be in use in the digital age, but many of the effects and processes he pioneered and perfected, continue to influence.
I suspect Ross was probably one cool ass dude.
Thanks for this one. I'm a gonna roll me one, hold my breath and check it out.
These are worth having, but you needed Witch Doctor, which hit Top 10 a year before the Chipmunks went to #1 with The Christmas Song (Almost Good from this set is the B side of Alvin's Harmonica). But for obvious reasons, you can't have it.
ReplyDeleteOMG - what a flight of fantasy that was!
ReplyDeleteFWIW, I hate the Chipmunks, but it's not their fault. Back in the 80's, my oldest son was a toddler and would play the Chipmunks version of Wooly Bully on his close and play every f@#%*g night.
Bigger problem, I was in grad school and every night, after we put the kids down to bed,I would go into the basement and study. My desk was right under the nightly Chipmunk's concert. There is only so much any one person can take before losing your mind.
My oldest son is 36 now, and I still hate the Chipmunks and Wooly Bully (by anyone).... and my mind has never been the same
Regards, Dave.
Thanx so much for this. I recently discovered these fun b sides to the Chipmunks records and have been trying to hunt down a collection.
ReplyDeleteMediocre, Flip side, almost good; all of them should have been hits
Cc5
Me I want a Hula Hoop