Witch Doctor by lazarus57

lazarus57 - Witch Doctor

lazarus57

Jul 08, 2025 06:06pm

CAN YOU TAKE THE HEAT.. FINAL ROUND.<img src="https://singsnap-cdn.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/message-board/threads/AGT4/e43fa87bd4_8G97_media.gif">CAN YOU TAKE THE HEAT.. FINAL ROUND. "Witch Doctor" is a 1958 American <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novelty_song" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">novelty song</a> written and recorded by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Bagdasarian" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">Ross Bagdasarian</a> (under the stage name of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Seville" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">David Seville</a>). Bagdasarian sang the song, varying the tape speeds to produce a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_(music)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">high-pitched</a> voice for the titular witch doctor;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_Doctor_(song)#cite_note-2" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[2]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_Doctor_(song)#cite_note-3" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[3]</a> this technique was later used in his next song, "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bird_on_My_Head" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">The Bird on My Head</a>",<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_Doctor_(song)#cite_note-4" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[4]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_Doctor_(song)#cite_note-bronson-5" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[5]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_Doctor_(song)#cite_note-oxford-6" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[6]</a> and for the creation of the voices of his <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_band" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">virtual band</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_and_the_Chipmunks" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">Alvin and the Chipmunks</a>. The song became a number one hit and rescued <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Records" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">Liberty Records</a> from near-bankruptcy;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_Doctor_(song)#cite_note-7" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[7]</a> it held number one for three weeks in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Hot_100" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">Billboard Hot 100</a> chart,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_Doctor_(song)#cite_note-books.google.com-8" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[8]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_Doctor_(song)#cite_note-9" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[9]</a> ranked by Billboard as the No. 4 song for 1958.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_Doctor_(song)#cite_note-10" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[10]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_Doctor_(song)#cite_note-11" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[11]</a>In the song, the narrator asks a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_doctor" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">witch doctor</a> for romantic advice because he has fallen in love with a girl; the witch doctor responds in a high-pitched, squeaky voice with a nonsense <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incantation" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">incantation</a> which creates an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earworm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">earworm</a>: "Oo-ee-oo-ah-ah, ting-tang, walla-walla-bing-bang."History]<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ross_Bagdasarian_Sr.jpg" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(32, 33, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Ross_Bagdasarian_Sr.jpg" height="309" width="230"></a>Ross Bagdasarian in the 50s<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Bagdasarian" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">Ross Bagdasarian</a>, a Broadway actor who had been a pianist in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">Alfred Hitchcock</a>'s 1954 film <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rear_Window" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">Rear Window</a>, wrote the song, inspired by a book titled Duel with a Witch Doctor on his bookshelf. Bagdasarian had spent $200, a significant sum at that time, on a specialized <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tape_recorder" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">tape recorder</a>;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_Doctor_(song)#cite_note-12" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[12]</a> while experimenting with the device, he had an idea of recording his voice at a different speed to create a dialogue between himself and the witch doctor. He sang in his own voice as normal, and then overdubbed the song with the voice of the "witch doctor", which is in fact his own voice sung slowly but recorded at half speed on the tape recorder, then played back at normal speed (the voice was therefore sped up to become a high-pitched, squeaky one).<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_Doctor_(song)#cite_note-bronson-5" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[5]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_Doctor_(song)#cite_note-oxford-6" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[6]</a> Bagdasarian recorded the music first, and then experimented with the process for creating the singing voice for two months before recording it in the studio.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_Doctor_(song)#cite_note-bronson-5" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[5]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_Doctor_(song)#cite_note-tyler-13" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[13]</a> It was said that when <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Si_Waronker" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">Si Waronker</a> from the financially-troubled <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Records" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">Liberty Records</a> label heard the resulting song, they released it to reach the shops within 24 hours.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_Doctor_(song)#cite_note-14" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[14]</a>The same technique used to create the voice of the witch doctor was used in Bagdasarian's next song "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bird_on_My_Head" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">The Bird on My Head</a>", and then more significantly the highly successful <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_and_the_Chipmunks" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">Alvin and the Chipmunks</a>, beginning with "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chipmunk_Song_(Christmas_Don%27t_Be_Late)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)</a>" released for Christmas 1958.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_Doctor_(song)#cite_note-oxford-6" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[6]</a> Initially released under David Seville alone, "Witch Doctor" was also released under the name of David Seville and the Chipmunks and re-recorded under the name Alvin and the Chipmunks. The technique was also imitated by other recording artists, such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheb_Wooley" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">Sheb Wooley</a> in "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Purple_People_Eater" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">The Purple People Eater</a>".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_Doctor_(song)#cite_note-tyler-13" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[13]</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bopper" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">The Big Bopper</a> parodied both songs on "The Purple People Eater Meets the Witch Doctor"; this song was originally released as a single, but it was its flip-side "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chantilly_Lace_(song)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">Chantilly Lace</a>" that became the hit.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_Doctor_(song)#cite_note-15" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[15]</a>Chart performance"Witch Doctor" peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 100, the predecessor to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Hot_100" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">Billboard Hot 100</a>. The single was considered a major surprise hit on the chart, where it became <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Bagdasarian" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">Ross Bagdasarian</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Records" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">Liberty Records</a>' first No. 1 single, and stayed in the position for three weeks. The single also peaked at No. 1 on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_R%26B/Hip-Hop_Singles_%26_Tracks" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">Billboard R&B chart</a> even though it is not a R&B song – this is due to the R&B chart being a trade category at the time, reflecting the popularity of the song with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">African-American</a> radio stations and customers.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_Doctor_(song)#cite_note-16" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[16]</a> The single had sold 1.4 million copies in the United States by December 1958.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_Doctor_(song)#cite_note-books.google.com-8" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[8]</a> Billboard ranked it as the No. 4 song for 1958.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_Doctor_(song)#cite_note-17" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[17]</a> <img src="https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Music/v4/6a/17/bf/6a17bfd4-4908-c8fc-fce3-78aa2c9a5ca3/David_Seville_and_the_Chipmunks_-_Witch_Doctor.jpg/1200x1200bf-60.jpg" alt="‎Witch Doctor (Remastered) - Single - Album by David Seville & The ...">