A Different Kind Of Success Story

Welcome to the 2nd full week of February. Sorry about not posting last week but I was dealing with a physical 
1-2 punch. 
On Saturday, I pulled the muscles on the left side of my back. Then about the same time a kidney stone decided it wanted to "follow the yellow brick road" through me and out into to the world, causing me a lot of extreme pain. 

It took a visit to an urgent care on Monday (over a 2 hour wait) and a Wednesday morning trip to the ER to get the correct diagnosis and meds I needed. 

By Friday night, all had passed and I was feeling fine. Enough of my medical history now on to today's post. Its going to be slightly different than most. 

I'm going to be sharing a story that's not mine. Its going to be a retelling of an American success story I heard told by a guest on "The Diner", an XM radio program. I mentioned the show in part 3 of my "Listener List" series. 
This is my first attempt at writing in this style so I hope it something you find interesting. 

The grapes didn't sell. The raisins didn't either. The only thing left that might put food on the table for his family was a song he'd written. So after selling the vineyard inherited from his father, in 1949, Ross left Fresno,CA and headed west. Along with his wife and two children he made his way to Los Angeles. Soon he was knocking on record companies' doors to try and spark some interest in his composition. 

After many rejections the song, "Come Ona My House" was finally recorded by Rosemary Clooney and released on Columbia records. It was a hit and proved profitable enough to sustain Ross' family and get him signed to a record contract. 

Several years later that record label found itself in trouble; close to going under. By then, once again, so was Ross' family. 

His wife, Armen, and family were depending on Ross to come up with something that would keep a roof over their heads. 

In a desperate move, with Armen's encouragement, Ross withdrew the last $250 from their savings and purchased a tape recorder. Using the variable recording speeds on the machine, he gave his latest song a second voice and a unique sound.   

It was released as a single in April 1958 using Ross' stage name. The record buying public loved the nonsense lyrics, and catchy tune of this little ditty. The record skyrocketed to the top of the charts. It became a #1 single and sold a million and a half copies. Rescuing both the record company and providing for the family.  

Over the next few months, supported by both his label's president and chairman, Ross was back in the studio. With the help of a very talented chief engineer, he came up with a song that focused on the hook that turned his last single to gold. 

This time it wasn't Ross singing but that "second voice." He turned it into a trio singing in harmony. To help the public connect with these new voices, Ross connected them to anthropomorphic characters with individual personalities. He used the names of that pair of record company executives and the chief engineer to give names to the voices making them very marketable. 

During the Christmas season of 1958, their first single, on which one of the characters misbehaved and lamented over wanting a popular toy, was a holiday sensation. It went to #1 for 4 weeks and gave birth to a multimedia franchise. 
A franchise that over the last 6 decades has included albums, an animated TV show, feature films, comic books, toys, merchandise and more.

Some of you might have guessed by now just exactly who those 3 singing characters might be. But you might not be familiar with their creator, Ross Bagdasarian. A man who, when it comes down to it, was just doing the only thing he knew to do and it led to success. 

His stage name was David Seville.  Those singing rodents, named after 3 of his Liberty records colleagues, Al Bennet, Simon Waronker and Theodore Keep are to this day known as Alvin and The Chipmunks. 

As a life long fan, I found the idea that something as continuously popular as the Chipmunks, who have been around for over 60 years, started because of a problem, common throughout the history. A man seeking to provide for his family. 

By the way, the guest on the "The Diner" show I referred to at the start of this post, was Ross Bagdasarian Jr. He and his wife have been overseeing everything to do with the Chipmunks ever since his father's death in 1972. 
I know this was a different kind of blog but the story was so compelling I had to share it with you. Thanks for taking the time to read this post I'll see you next time.