The Chipmunks

The Chipmunks were a novelty musical project created by Ross Bagdasarian Sr. The "group" consists of three chipmunks named Alvin, Simon, and Theodore (who are actually sped up human voices), and David Seville (Bagdasarian). Perhaps best known for their Christmas novelty songs, the Chipmunks had a #1 hit single during the 1958 Christmas season with "The Chipmunk Song". This initial success spawned late 1950s-early 1960s imitation groups like the Nutty Squirrels and the Astro Mice, a Saturday morning cartoon called The Alvin Show in 1961-62, and several albums during the 1960s. The Chipmunks had a comeback in the 1980s after the release of the album Chipmunk Punk in 1980, their first studio album since 1969. The Christmas TV special A Chipmunk Christmas premiered in 1981. The Saturday morning cartoon series, Alvin and the Chipmunks ran from 1983 to 1990. Numerous albums and several Chipmunks movies, some of them direct to video, have been released since.