ROSS BAGDASARIAN, SR.

'Ross Bagdasarian' (b. '''Rostom Sipan Bagdasarian''' () January 27, 1919 – d. January 16, 1972) was an American pianist, songwriter, actor, and record producer of Armenian ethnic descent, born in Fresno, California. During his professional life he was better known by the stage name 'David Seville', which he used on his recordings featuring 'The Chipmunks'.
As a young man, Bagdasarian appeared in the Broadway cast of ''The Time of Your Life'', written by his famous cousin, William Saroyan. Bagdasarian's first musical success was Rosemary Clooney's "Come on-a My House", which he wrote with Saroyan: the song's lyric is based on dialogue from the latter's novel ''The Human Comedy''. They wrote the song on the tour bus while ''The Time of Your Life'' was on its post-Broadway tour.
Bagdasarian had a moderate hit in 1956 under the name Alfi & Harry with the novelty record "The Trouble With Harry." As David Seville, he had another #1 record in his song, "The Witch Doctor", which was also his first experiment with the technique of speeding up the playback of an audio track to get the "most-distinctive" higher pitched squeaky comical sound. This success led to his recording of "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)" with The Chipmunks, for which he won two Grammy Awards in 1959: Best Comedy Performance and Best Recording for Children.
Bagdasarian appeared in minor film roles, including Alfred Hitchcock's ''Rear Window'' (1954), in which he plays an obsessed piano-playing songwriter. Bagdasarian has no dialogue in this film, and appears only in long shots, but he is the only other person on camera during the shot in which Hitchcock makes his notorious cameo appearance. Bagdasarian also had bit parts in ''The Deep Six'' (1957), ''The Devil's Hairpin'' (1957), ''The Proud and Profane'' (1956), ''Three Violent People'' (1956), ''Hot Blood'' (1956), ''Alaska Seas'' (1954), ''Destination Gobi'' (1953), ''Stalag 17'' (1953), ''Viva Zapata!'' (1952), and ''The Greatest Show on Earth'' (1952).
He also provided the voice for the David Seville character in the Chipmunks' 1961 animated television series ''The Alvin Show''.
Bagdasarian died of a heart attack in 1972. He was subsequently cremated at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles, California. His son, Ross Bagdasarian, Jr., continued to release Chipmunks recordings and took over as the voice for the Chipmunk characters (except Theodore; his wife, Janice Karman, did his voice as well as all of The Chipettes) and David Seville in subsequent iterations of the cartoon.

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External links

External links

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

★ All Music Guide Entry

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★ ''David Seville'' Review at Rockabilly

★ Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. at Find-A-Grave