Comments on: C..h...r..i...s..t..m..a..s....C...h..r..i..s..t..m..a..s

C..h...r..i...s..t..m..a..s....C...h..r..i..s..t..m..a..s

Turtles all the way down — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 12:55:10 -0800

If you slow down an Alvin and the Chipmunks recording by just the right amount you can hear the voices of the original singers. via

By: Shfishp

Shfishp — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 13:01:30 -0800

I used to do that when I was a kid. I believe that ALL of the voices are one guy on multiple tracks. Dave Seville, I think.

By: anomie

anomie — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 13:04:37 -0800

Pretty funnyPatton Oswald bit this reminded me of. (youtube, after the gay retard bit, unfortunately.)

By: hal9k

hal9k — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 13:08:41 -0800

Patton Oswalt (YouTube about 1 minute in)

By: hal9k

hal9k — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 13:10:33 -0800

Simon... Theodore... ANOMIE!

By: Turtles all the way down

Turtles all the way down — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 13:16:09 -0800

Patton Oswalt... Now that is funny.

By: lowlife

lowlife — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 13:18:16 -0800

Apparently it's this guy.

By: anomie

anomie — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 13:19:13 -0800

Simon... Theodore... ANOMIE! At least you got his name right. /declares hal9k winner

By: odinsdream

odinsdream — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 13:21:57 -0800

double?

By: MrMoonPie

MrMoonPie — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 13:26:31 -0800

The MrsMoonPie can do a pitch-perfect Chipmunks imitation without any electronic doo-dad-ery. I find it incredibly cute.

By: dr_dank

dr_dank — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 13:32:10 -0800

/me I want a hula hoop

By: agregoli

agregoli — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 13:38:05 -0800

Um....duh?

By: BeerFilter

BeerFilter — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 13:59:06 -0800

If you play The Chipmunk Song backwards it says "Simon is Dead" over and over.

By: drleary

drleary — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 14:03:13 -0800

Metafilter: Um....Duh?

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 14:09:04 -0800

More on Ross Bagdasarian, a.k.a. David Seville here.

By: gigawhat?

gigawhat? — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 14:12:36 -0800

Fun fact: If you play the records at double speed they sound twice as chipmunk-y!

By: The Great Big Mulp

The Great Big Mulp — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 14:23:11 -0800

I was inspired to do this just last month, after first trying the technique with Diary of an Unborn Child. Just to let you know, it only makes that song scarier, too. Which I just didn't think was possible.

By: Iridic

Iridic — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 14:26:56 -0800

And played backwards, Me, I want a huuuuula-hooooop, becomes Puling humans! Kneel before Bagdasarian!

By: mr_roboto

mr_roboto — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 14:33:18 -0800

The Great Big Mulp writes "I was inspired to do this just last month, after first trying the technique with Diary of an Unborn Child. " Lil Markie isn't a tape speed trick, though. He makes that voice in real time. YouTube has the terrifying videos.

By: smackfu

smackfu — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 14:44:40 -0800

I think they slowed it down too much.

By: barjo

barjo — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 14:45:00 -0800

I grew up in an era where record players still had selectors for speeds of 16, 33, 45 and 78 rpm -- 16 rpm was apparently used for language records, and it was perfect for revealing the multitracked Bagdasarians behind the Chipmunks. Fun fact: Bagdasarian is the songwriter that Jimmy Stewart spies on in Rear Window.

By: wfc123

wfc123 — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 14:55:58 -0800

This is great. I did this nearly 40 years ago by dragging my finger on the turntable while the 45 was playing.

By: A189Nut

A189Nut — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 15:17:02 -0800

For UK-er, Pinky and Perky

By: lekvar

lekvar — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 16:51:47 -0800

On one hand I've always known how the Chipmunk songs were made, but on the other, I find it a little peculiar to hear the original, unmodified voices.

By: davebush

davebush — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 16:51:53 -0800

I'm sure this has been mentioned here before but Alvin saying "OK!" sounds EXACTLY like Jello Biafra.

By: aliasless

aliasless — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 17:15:00 -0800

It makes me appreciate the amount of control that these singers needed - enunciate in such a way that it sound natural (well, kind of natural) at twice the speed. It seems to involve some serious stifling of natural speech patterns.

By: yhbc

yhbc — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 17:19:23 -0800

Not a double, but here's the original thread where we all remember hearing it the first time.

By: WaterSprite

WaterSprite — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 18:20:59 -0800

Alvin always made me want a hula hoop and my two front teeth.

By: WaterSprite

WaterSprite — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 18:23:42 -0800

Oh, and the normal version made me finally understand the lyrics after so many years. I sent this link to my dad, who subjected my brother and me to Chipmunks music for days on end when we had our tonsils out.

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 19:19:57 -0800

Y'know. Discoveries of such magnitude should, in an ideal world, like, cure cancer or something. However, I feel like I've just damaged a couple brain cells wrapping my mind around this realization: that anyone on this planet discovers this and finds it bluesworthy. I mean. That's cool! When I was 12 and figured this out the first time I was like, "awesome! That's how they did that!" When I told my nephews some years ago that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were named after Famous Italian Renaissance Artists they were like, "that's so cool." I once knew a guy who thought Aerosmith wrote the Beatles song "Come Together." When I educated him, he was like, "that's so cool." Granted, this makes me feel older than dirt whenever it happens, but hey. Nothin' new under the sun, but everything is new to everybody once.

By: Opposite George

Opposite George — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 20:04:12 -0800

I did this nearly 40 years ago by dragging my finger on the turntable while the 45 was playing. Me too. Kids today don't know what they're missing out on. Off the lawn/uphill in the snow/keeping the ball/etc.

By: Turtles all the way down

Turtles all the way down — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 20:33:20 -0800

Off the lawn/uphill in the snow Gargling gravel and drinking poison before labouring 12 hours in mine etc. I asked my daughter (7) if she'd ever seen a record player. She looked at me like I was retarded and said "Uh...yeah! Like in movies!" Same answer for dial telephones. I am so old.

By: Zaximus

Zaximus — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 20:40:20 -0800

My friend and I used to do the digital equivalent of dragging the record on the turntable by shifting the pitch up and down in Sonique. Similar to this, if you slow down any songs to about 70% from South Park, you can easily pick out the voices of Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Also, as an added treat, try shifting "Hit Me Baby One More Time" by Britney Spears down to 60-something percent. It should sound like she's trying to summon some terrible demon from the netherworld.

By: Turtles all the way down

Turtles all the way down — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 20:56:19 -0800

My friend and I used to do the digital equivalent of dragging the record on the turntable by shifting the pitch up and down in Sonique. Yeah, and you kids think you invented sex. Don't you! Don't you!

By: Opposite George

Opposite George — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 21:27:58 -0800

Y'all don't know this but I invented Death Metal back in 1982 when I put my brand-new Bad Brains Destroy Babylon EP on the turntable on 33 rpm, not knowing it was supposed to run at 45. It wasn't 'till the second track that I realized something was amiss. The dude from Sepultura was hanging out outside my parents' house and thus history was made. Tune in tomorrow for our next exciting story: "The peanut butter/chocolate bar faux pas!"

By: JMOZ

JMOZ — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 22:22:17 -0800

Turtles all the way down: My wife has a bone to pick with you. You (ok, I) apparently just robbed her of her best childhood memories. (Yes, we both knew how this was done, but actually hearing it is another thing entirely).

By: The Great Big Mulp

The Great Big Mulp — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 05:50:17 -0800

Lil Markie isn't a tape speed trick, though. He makes that voice in real time. YouTube has the terrifying videos. Jesus Fucking Christ! That makes me want to gouge out my brain!

By: Turtles all the way down

Turtles all the way down — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 09:27:04 -0800

JMOZ: you mean until now she thought they were real chipmunks?!

By: Ogre Lawless

Ogre Lawless — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 10:57:17 -0800

Man, the instrumental intro slowed down really needs to be the next hook in someone's sample-heavy project.

By: destinyland

destinyland — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 20:26:28 -0800

There more slowed-down Chipmunk tracks in this article. (I did a whole podcast about the history of the Chipmunks...)