Bagdasarian Productions films have also aired on Disney Channel, although most of them are not presently owned by Disney, including The Chipmunk Adventure, Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein, Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman, Spirited Away and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

This oft-used process was not entirely new to Bagdasarian, who had also used it for two previous novelty songs, including " Witch Doctor ", but it was so unusual and well-executed it earned the record two Grammy Awards for engineering.

Bagdasarian also added in reference to the Chipettes characters, " It enables you to deal with issues that girls are going through that boys wouldn't necessarily be dealing with ... We had a baby girl at the time.

It was founded in 1961 as Bagdasarian Film Corporation, which was owned and founded by the late Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. ( also known as David Seville ).

She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the novelty hit " Come On-a My House " written by William Saroyan and his cousin Ross Bagdasarian ( better known as David Seville, the father figure of Alvin and the Chipmunks ), which was followed by other pop numbers such as " Botch-a-Me " ( a cover version of the Italian song Ba-Ba-Baciami Piccina by Alberto Rabagliati ), " Mambo Italiano ", " Tenderly ", " Half as Much ", " Hey There " and " This Ole House ", although she had success as a jazz vocalist.

In 1958, Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. released a novelty song ( as David Seville ) about being unsuccessful at love until he found a witch doctor who told him how to woo his woman.

The song was done by Bagdasarian in his normal voice, except for the " magic " words, done first in Bagdasarian's pitched-up, pre-Chipmunk voice, then in a duet between his pitched-up voice and his normal voice.

Bagdasarian ( again as Seville ) recorded a follow-up song, " The Bird on My Head ", singing a duet with his own sped-up voice as the bird.

At the height of its popularity, Bagdasarian and 3 chipmunk hand-puppets appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, lip-synching the song.

They wrote the song on the post-Broadway tour bus of The Time of Your Life in 1939, and recorded it under their own names as a duet ( Saroyan speaking the narrative, Bagdasarian delivering the lyrics in dialect ) for Coral Records.

Bagdasarian portrays a piano-playing songwriter who composes, plays, and sings the song " Lisa ".

The title song for was cowritten by Mickey Rooney and Ross Bagdasarian, the creator of Alvin and the Chipmunks.

The song was written by Ross Bagdasarian and his cousin, noted Armenian American writer William Saroyan in the summer of 1939 ; however, the song did not become a hit until the release of Clooney's recording.

The composers performed the song themselves – Bagdasarian singing, Saroyan offering occasional narration – for Coral Records.

* Ross Bagdasarian, Sr., creator of the Alvin and the Chipmunks franchise, outright refused to utilize a laugh track when production began on The Alvin Show ( CBS, 1961 – 62 ) in 1961.

Bagdasarian did record a " Chipmunks " version of " Witch Doctor ", which appeared on the second Chipmunks album, Sing Again with The Chipmunks, in 1960.

The Chipmunks first officially appeared on the scene in a novelty record released in late fall 1958 by Bagdasarian.

In 1987, during the fifth season of the show on television, the Chipmunks had their first animated feature film, The Chipmunk Adventure, directed by Janice Karman and Ross Bagdasarian, Jr., and released to theaters by The Samuel Goldwyn Company.

Bagdasarian recorded vocals and music at different speeds to combine properly on his recording.

In 2005, Bagdasarian Productions struck a deal with Paramount Home Video to distribute their latest direct-to-video release, Little Alvin and the Mini-Munks on DVD.

* Janice Karman and Ross Bagdasarian Jr. on their inspiration for creating the Chipettes — http :// www. mediavillage. com / jmentr / 2006 / 09 / 11 / Jacki-09-11-06 /

Bagdasarian had small parts in The Greatest Show on Earth, Viva Zapata !, Destination Gobi, Stalag 17, Alaska Seas, The Proud and Profane, Three Violent People, Hot Blood, The Deep Six, and The Devil's Hairpin.

According to Ross Bagdasarian, Jr., his father was down to his last $ 200 when he spent $ 190 on a V-M tape recorder that would let him vary the tape speed.

Bagdasarian was found dead of a heart attack on January 16, 1972, eleven days before his 53rd birthday ; he was cremated at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles, California.

* History area on TheChipmunks. com with some photos and stories about Ross Bagdasarian

Years later, his son Ross, Jr. picked up on a disc jockey's joke and produced the hit Chipmunk Punk album in 1980, which spurred new interest for a brand new animated series with an updated look to The Chipmunks and David Seville ( now voiced by Ross Bagdasarian, Jr .).

In 2007, Bagdasarian produced the movie, Alvin and the Chipmunks, based on the cartoon and featuring computer-animated Chipmunks and a live-action David Seville, portrayed by Jason Lee.

The focus of Bagdasarian Productions company is on creating albums, cartoons, and other products based on the Alvin and the Chipmunks characters, who were created by Bagdasarian's father Ross Bagdasarian, Sr.

After the success of his animated cartoon series on NBC, Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. began developing a concept for a full-length feature film.

Fortunately for Bagdasarian Productions, the box-office failure of Disney's The Black Cauldron in 1985 had led to the layoff of a number of Disney animators, whom Bagdasarian promptly hired to work on his film.

During the 1950s, Keep provided the synchronization process that allowed Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. to combine his speed-doubled voice technique with full orchestration on " Witch Doctor " and the series of Chipmunks recordings.

After the death of Ross Bagdasarian in 1972 from a heart attack, the Chipmunks ' careers stalled until NBC showed interest in the original show ( the network carried Saturday morning reruns of The Alvin Show as a midseason replacement in 1979 ) and the following year, Excelsior Records released a new album of contemporary songs performed by the Chipmunks.

That album, Chipmunk Punk, featured Bagdasarian's son, Ross Bagdasarian Jr., doing the voices of the characters.

The Mixed-up World of Bagdasarian ( 1966 Liberty 7451 ; recorded under David Seville's real name, Ross Bagdasarian )

* 1919 – Ross Bagdasarian, Sr., American musician ( d. 1972 )

* 1972 – Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. ( David Seville ), American actor ( b. 1919 )

* 1949 – Ross Bagdasarian, Jr., American voice actor and cartoonist

* January 27 – Ross Bagdasarian, American musician and actor ( Alvin and the Chipmunks ) ( d. 1972 )

* January 16 – Ross Bagdasarian, Sr., American record producer ( Alvin and the Chipmunks ) ( b. 1919 )

* Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. & Janice Karman

* January 16 – Ross Bagdasarian, composer, creator of The Alvin Show

** Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. for " The Chipmunk Song ", performed by Ross Bagdasarian Sr. as " David Seville and the Chipmunks "

Domenico Modugno, Henry Mancini, Ella Fitzgerald and Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. each won 2 awards.

** Ross Bagdasarian Sr. for " The Chipmunk Song ( Christmas Don't Be Late )" performed by Ross Bagdasarian Sr. as " David Seville and the Chipmunks "

** Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. for " The Chipmunk Song ", performed by Ross Bagdasarian Sr. as " David Seville and the Chipmunks "

** Ross Bagdasarian Sr. for Let's All Sing With the Chipmunks performed by Ross Bagdasarian Sr. as " David Seville and the Chipmunks "