Rostom Sipan Bagdasarian (January 27, 1919 – January 16, 1972), American pianist, songwriter, actor, and record producer was born in Fresno, California, and was of Armenian ethnic descent. During his professional life he was better known by the stage name David Seville, which he used on his recordings featuring The Chipmunks.
His first musical success was Rosemary Clooney's "Come on-a My House", which he based the lyrics on dialogue from his famous cousin William Saroyan's novel The Human Comedy. Read Full BioRostom Sipan Bagdasarian (January 27, 1919 – January 16, 1972), American pianist, songwriter, actor, and record producer was born in Fresno, California, and was of Armenian ethnic descent. During his professional life he was better known by the stage name David Seville, which he used on his recordings featuring The Chipmunks.
His first musical success was Rosemary Clooney's "Come on-a My House", which he based the lyrics on dialogue from his famous cousin William Saroyan's novel The Human Comedy. He 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.
Bagdasarian also appeared in minor film roles, including Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954), in which he plays an obsessed, piano-playing songwriter who composes, plays, and sings a song called "Lisa." Bagdasarian's dialogue is not clearly heard, and he appears only in long shots, but he is the only other person seen during Hitchcock's notorious cameo appearance. He also had bit parts in The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), Viva Zapata! (1952), Destination Gobi (1953), Stalag 17 (1953), Alaska Seas (1954), The Proud and Profane (1956), Three Violent People (1956), Hot Blood (1956), The Deep Six (1957), and The Devil's Hairpin (1957).
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 at the age of 52. 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 in subsequent iterations of the cartoon.
His first musical success was Rosemary Clooney's "Come on-a My House", which he based the lyrics on dialogue from his famous cousin William Saroyan's novel The Human Comedy. Read Full BioRostom Sipan Bagdasarian (January 27, 1919 – January 16, 1972), American pianist, songwriter, actor, and record producer was born in Fresno, California, and was of Armenian ethnic descent. During his professional life he was better known by the stage name David Seville, which he used on his recordings featuring The Chipmunks.
His first musical success was Rosemary Clooney's "Come on-a My House", which he based the lyrics on dialogue from his famous cousin William Saroyan's novel The Human Comedy. He 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.
Bagdasarian also appeared in minor film roles, including Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954), in which he plays an obsessed, piano-playing songwriter who composes, plays, and sings a song called "Lisa." Bagdasarian's dialogue is not clearly heard, and he appears only in long shots, but he is the only other person seen during Hitchcock's notorious cameo appearance. He also had bit parts in The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), Viva Zapata! (1952), Destination Gobi (1953), Stalag 17 (1953), Alaska Seas (1954), The Proud and Profane (1956), Three Violent People (1956), Hot Blood (1956), The Deep Six (1957), and The Devil's Hairpin (1957).
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 at the age of 52. 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 in subsequent iterations of the cartoon.
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Almost Good
David Seville Lyrics
We have lyrics for these tracks by David Seville:
Chipmunk Song All right you Chipmunks! Ready to sing your song? I'll say w…
Christmas Don't Be Late All right you Chipmunks! Ready to sing your song? I'll say w…
Gotta Get To Your House Gotta get to your house Big brown eyes, pretty pink dress G…
Jingle Bell Rock Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock Jingle bells swi…
JINGLE BELLS Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock Jingle bells swin…
Little Brass Band Oh the piccolo plays and the banjo plunks and the…
Ragtime Cowboy Joe Out in Arizona where the bad men are, And the only…
The Bird On My Head I'm just sittin in a vacant lot with a bird…
The Chipmunk Song All right you Chipmunks! Ready to sing your song? I'll say w…
The Witch Doctor I told the witch doctor I was in love with…
Witch Doctor I told the witch doctor I was in love with…
Witchdoctor I told the witch doctor I was in love with…
The lyrics can frequently be found in the comments below or by filtering for lyric videos.
KG Meow
Lyrics to “Strong Man”:
I was born with a steel backbone
I never met a man like my own
I heard a lot of talking in my day
But I have never heard another man say
Move little man let me through
Here’s to a much bigger man than you
Move little man don’t you wait
Coz one more second might be too late
Strong man, strong man
hardlines4
Great childhood memories ❤️
SingGal2020
Always loved this song!
Jaco
Decidedly better than anything they’re putting out today. 👍
John LaStrada
And no jazz pianist has covered this? This is a masterpiece. A great way to even open a concert. Seville coaxed little kids to listen to jazz by putting stuff like this on the other side of his kiddie records ("The Chipmunk Song," "Witch Doctor").
I was one of those "almost good" little kids.
FYI -- David Seville and the writer of this song Ross Bagdasarian are one and the same. Ross is his real name.
Beyond the Seville name, he was also all 3 of The Chipmunks.
Barry I. Grauman
You're welcome.
John LaStrada
@Barry I. Grauman - Thanks for that Barry.
Barry I. Grauman
Mark McIntyre, who co-wrote the song, is the pianist.
hebneh
This has strong exotica elements, which then are downplayed as the song progresses.
KG Meow
Hello! Does anybody know where I can find the song “Strong Man” online? It’s from the 50’s or earlier, and my husband recalls it was on the B-side of “Almost Good”. We’ve been unsuccessfully looking for the song online for years. Please let me know if you have a clue! I’ll put the lyrics down here to help out. Thank you very much!
KG Meow
Lyrics to “Strong Man”:
I was born with a steel backbone
I never met a man like my own
I heard a lot of talking in my day
But I have never heard another man say
Move little man let me through
Here’s to a much bigger man than you
Move little man don’t you wait
Coz one more second might be too late
Strong man, strong man