Sunday, December 21, 2008

Christmas with Alvin and the Chipmunks


Back when I was a just a wee lad, I absolutely adored Alvin and the Chipmunks. I'm talking about the original version created by Ross Bagdasarian in the late 50's, not the 1980's version and not the 2007 Jason Lee live action film. I loved watching repeats of the early 1960's cartoon The Alvin Show; I had all of their albums (including The Chipmunks See Doctor Doolittle and The Chipmunks Sing the Beatles,) and my pre-adolescent Yuletide was not complete unless I listened to Christmas with the Chipmunks (Volumes 1 and 2) at least 100 times. This morning I received an early Christmas present courtesy of YouTube; a clip from the aforementioned Alvin Show featuring Alvin, Simon, Theodore and David Seville (all voiced by Bagdasarian) performing The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late), the 1958 Billboard # 1 hit (the only Christmas song to reach # 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles Chart). I, in turn, offer it to you for your Yuletide enjoyment.



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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousDecember 22, 2008 at 1:01 PM

    I too used to love the chipmunks until my own offspring saw the Jason Lee version and started playing the soundrack ad infinitum. That was bad enough, but hten they started talking in chipmunk voices for weeks. Sorta put me off the furry little demi rats.

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  2. Michael C.December 23, 2008 at 1:18 AM

    Here's how much I loved the Chipmunks - for Christmas one year I asked Santa to have them move into the empty house across the street. Yes I had issues differentiating fiction from reality - but it was the 60's and everyone was into reality bending drugs anyway.

    To tell you the truth - I watched the Jason Lee movie with Connor and it wasn't that bad except for the moderinized (is that a word?) version of the Chipmunk Song.

    We should try to get together between the holidays - what are you and the long suffering Mrs Bastard doing? We've never seen the new addition (what's his name? Job, Moses, Noah - I knew it was biblical)

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  3. AnonymousDecember 23, 2008 at 12:35 PM

    We were planning on maybe Zebediah or Mehibitabel but settled on Jonah. We would love to see you guys - - you should give us a call and we can get together. We however CANNOT watch It's a Wondeful Life becuase similar to the opoular sitcom " Everyone but Bic loves Raymond ", I have never been a fan of Jimmy Stewart. I kinda like Potterville anyway. If you spend enough time working ( as I sometimes do ) in Pittsfield, you feel an affinity to Potterville. I am surprised you never saw the wildly popular 80's Alvin and the Chipmunks version of It's a Wonderful Life. Theodore loses their stash of winter nuts and becomes despondent. He imagines a life without him and sees the terrible consequences. Alvin is savaged by a wild bear, and Simon becomes a male hustler. Of course there is that great squeaky voiced version of Everybody's talking me at me that plays as Simon and his friend take off together on a bus at the end, but really it was all tragic. Of course you can almost smell the redemption and the Scrooge like reversal of fortunes at the end when Theodore repents and the angel switches everything back. Sadly Theodores Colon bursts from years of abuse and he bleeds to death in slow mo as his blood drips down the drain as Tippy Hedren and Death Play chess in black and white.
    At least thats the way I remember it. Course I was around in the 60' s too ...

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  4. Michael C.December 24, 2008 at 4:52 AM

    Sometimes I don't even know how to respond to your comments. I'm thinking of putting them together in a special blog entitled "The Best of Bic"

    Of course, by admitting that you don't like Jimmy Stewart, you've proven what a souless bastard you really are...

    I'll give you a call later in the week

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