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.

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 ).

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 ".

Bagdasarian, Jr. and Karman continue to perform the singing voices for Alvin, Theodore and the Chipettes, but Steve Vining does Simon's singing voice.

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 the cartoon series and the accompanying feature films, all of the Chipettes were voiced by their creator, Janice Karman, the wife of Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. ( son of Ross Bagdasarian, Sr., the creator of The Chipmunks ).

* 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 /

After the death of Bagdasarian in 1972, the characters ' voices were performed by his son Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. and his wife Janice Karman in the subsequent incarnations of the 1980s and 1990s.

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

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

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

Four years later, he and wife Janice Karman sued them for breach of contract, claiming that Universal failed to properly utilize, market, and merchandise the characters and hence resulting in a loss of royalties to Bagdasarian.

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.

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.

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.

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, performing as the Chipmunks, released a long line of albums and singles, with " The Chipmunk Song " becoming a number-one single in the United States.

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

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 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

However, the rights to the series itself are owned by Bagdasarian Productions, who have licensed DVD distribution to Paramount Pictures.

Like Bagdasarian, Schulz maintained that the audience should be able to enjoy the show at their own pace, without being cued when to laugh.

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.

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.

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 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.

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

The Chipmunks ' recordings had the performers often labeled as " David Seville and the Chipmunks " and the composer typically listed as " Bagdasarian.

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

After his father's untimely death in 1972 ( Ross Sr. was found dead of a heart attack ), Bagdasarian succeeded him as the main owner of the Chipmunks productions, which had fallen into obscurity after significant success between 1958 and the late 1960s.

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.