* 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 )

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.

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

* January 27-Ross Bagdasarian ( aka David Seville ), of The Chipmunks ( d. 1972 )

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

** 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 "

* 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.

Alvin and the Chipmunks is an American animated music group created by Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. for a novelty record in 1958.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A " cash-in " single titled " The Trouble With Harry " by Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. using the pseudonym of " Alfi & Harry " was released in early 1956.

According to their creator, Janice Karman, she and Ross Bagdasarian, Jr., "... had been doing the albums at that point ... We couldn't do the girl songs.

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.

By 1958, Liberty was close to bankruptcy when Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. convinced them that they might as well press singles of " The Chipmunk Song ( Christmas Don't Be Late )" with the leftover vinyl pucks and labels in their warehouse.

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.

In this film, when Dave ( Ross Bagdasarian, Jr .) goes out of town, he leaves the young Chipmunks and the Chipettes in the care of Lalu ( Janice Karman ), a friend who is happy to have six preschoolers stay with her.

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.

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.

In 1956, Bagdasarian had a moderate hit as " Alfi and Harry " with a novelty record " The Trouble with Harry ", the same title as Alfred Hitchcock's comedy-thriller that year.

As David Seville, Bagdasarian had a number-one hit in the summer of 1958 with " Witch Doctor " which was his first experiment with speeding an audio track to get a distinctive, squeaky, high-pitched voice.

* 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 .).

Bagdasarian Productions is an American production company which holds the rights to Alvin and the Chipmunks ( with DVD distribution licensed to Paramount Pictures ) and related intellectual property assets.

He heads Bagdasarian Productions with his singer-manager wife Janice Karman.

Initially, Bagdasarian and his wife portrayed Alvin, Simon and Theodore in the film, but were replaced at the studio's insistence with younger actors Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler and Jesse McCartney respectively ( However, Bagdasarian Jr. does provide Alvin's singing voice.

She is the co-owner of Bagdasarian Productions with her husband Ross Bagdasarian, Jr.

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.

The term virtual band was popularised with Gorillaz in 2000 ; however, the concept of the virtual band was first demonstrated by Alvin and the Chipmunks in 1959, when their creator, Ross Bagdasarian, accelerated recordings of his own voice to achieve the ' chipmunk voice '.

# Conversations with Nazali Bagdasarian

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

In 1991, Bagdasarian Productions acquired the production company offices and holdings from Arden, and reopened the record label Jet Records under the new name Chipmunk Records.

Bagdasarian named the three Chipmunk characters after record executives: Simon Waronker, Ted Keep ( Theodore ), and Alvin Bennett.

The first Chipmunk record, " The Chipmunk Song ", had Bagdasarian doing all the voices.

Ross Bagdasarian had died of a heart attack in January 1972, precluding any future Chipmunk activity.

In 1991, Bagdasarian Productions acquired the production company offices and holdings from Arden, and reopened the label under the new name Chipmunk Records.

Bagdasarian and Karman hold tight creative and financial control over the Chipmunk franchise, reviewing each and every business contract in great detail.

I wasn ’ t willing to be one of those people .” In the mid-90s, Bagdasarian bought the Chipmunk rights from brother Adam and a sister ( a stay-at-home mother ), to take complete control.

Bagdasarian licensed the rights to the Chipmunk characters to Universal Pictures in 1996, resulting in a string of Universal-produced direct-to-video films.

The Chipmunk Adventure was directed by Janice Karman from a screenplay by Karman and Ross Bagdasarian Jr ..

Bagdasarian also performs the song on his album The Mixed-Up World of Ross Bagdasarian and Alvin and the Chipmunks sang it for their Thanksgiving episodem " A Chipmunk Celebration ".