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42-506: The inspiration for the album came when KMET DJ Chuck Taylor played the 12″ version of the Blondie song " Call Me " at 45 instead of 33 1 ⁄ 3 RPM and announced, in jest, that it was the Chipmunks' latest single. So many requests came for this "new" Chipmunks release, that Ross Bagdasarian Jr. and his collaborator Steve Vining rushed to record this album. In addition to "Call Me,"

84-445: A semi-official release in 1994 and then an official release in 2008. According to author David Buckley, possessing a copy of the bootleg was the test of a "proper Bowie fan". On July 7, 1978, KMET aired Bruce Springsteen 's concert live from the Roxy . Many songs from that broadcast were included on Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's album Live/1975–85 . KMET was a member of

126-508: A 21-year run on air. The station, nicknamed "The Mighty Met" (among other nicknames), was a pioneering station of the "underground" progressive rock format. As with many FM stations at the time, KMET featured an automated format (with female voices and middle-of-the-road music). The origin of KMET's freeform rock music format came about due to events at a rival radio station. In 1967, popular Top 40 disc jockey Tom Donahue (Rock Radio Hall of Fame inductee 2015) and his wife Raechel took

168-505: A futuristic billboard campaign called "Hollywood as seen from Mulholland Drive in the year 2525." Artist Neon Park did ads for KMET as well as the famous billboards. With this new programming design and branded marketing, in 1975 KMET became the number one radio station in Los Angeles. http://www.shadoe.com/kroq-kmet-fm.html KMET's station identification jingle , "A Little Bit of Heaven, Ninety-Four Point Seven - KMET - Tweedle-Dee"

210-668: A group of progressive-rock stations that emerged across the country in the late 1960s and early 1970s, along with KSAN , WNEW-FM in New York City, WMMR in Philadelphia, WBCN in Boston, WMMS in Cleveland, and KQRS-FM in Minneapolis. The 1978 movie FM , written by former employee Ezra Sacks, was reportedly loosely based on KMET. The lead character was based around Mike Herrington ,

252-518: A one-day revival of KMET complete with the original airchecks and many of the on-air staff from the station's heyday. The Sound had another KMET reunion from November 1 to 3, 2013. KMET was inducted into the Rock Radio Hall of Fame in the "Legends of Rock Radio-Stations" category in 2014. The Chipmunk Song " The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late) " is a novelty Christmas song written and recorded by Ross Bagdasarian (under

294-759: A separate chart.) The song charted on the Hot Digital Songs for the first time in 2005, peaking at No. 35. With the release and popularity of the live-action film Alvin and the Chipmunks in 2007, "The Chipmunk Song" re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 70. At the same time, a remixed version of the song that appears on the Chipmunks' 2007 album (and soundtrack to the film) Alvin and the Chipmunks: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack , peaked at No. 66. As of December 25, 2011, Nielsen SoundScan estimated total sales of two versions of

336-625: A song, from artists such as Bob Dylan , John Lennon , Pink Floyd , The Doors or Led Zeppelin —that underscored his point. KMET often mixed counterculture comedy skits by the Firesign Theatre and the Credibility Gap with the music. The Credibility Gap broadcast satirical skits during Pasadena's Tournament of Roses Parade in the 1970s. Another KMET staple at the time was Dr. Demento , whose variety show began on KPPC-FM. The Dr. Demento Show moved to KMET-FM in 1972 and soon became

378-558: A staple on the Billboard charts. The song was a number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 when it was released in 1958, and re-entered the chart multiple times in the 1960s. It also appeared on the Holiday 100, where it peaked at number 26 in 2015. The song has been featured in many movies and television shows, including Look Who's Talking Now! (1993), Donnie Brasco (1997), The Fate of

420-514: The Toronto Star gave the album two stars, writing, "if you want to go out and buy this ridiculous album, go ahead. But remember this: if you do, you'll just encourage Frankie Avalon to come out of retirement. And don’t say I didn’t warn you." Bill Provich of the Ottawa Citizen wrote: WARNING: This album should have been a single. For those who don't remember The Chipmunks, beware, though

462-695: The Top 40 AM stations. The disc jockeys talked far less, and in a more personal, relaxed manner. They voiced their opinions on controversial topics, such as the killing of whales, the spraying of marijuana with the toxic chemical Paraquat , the Vietnam War and civil rights , and most importantly they chose the music that they played on the air. Emblematic of this approach was longtime KMET late-night host Jim Ladd (fired October 25, 2011 by one-time rival KLOS-FM , later hosting his own show on SiriusXM , now deceased), whose laid-back philosophical ruminations usually led into

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504-734: The FM underground rock sound to KMPX in San Francisco, and soon, along with L.A. Top 40 personality B. Mitchel Reed , to KPPC-FM in Pasadena. Both stations quickly became popular with their innovative formats, and brought the owners more success than they encountered before. But it was to be short-lived. After conflicts with the stations’ owners, the Donahues, Reed and the rest of the KPPC and KMPX staff left both stations and went on strike . As prospects for resolving

546-515: The Furious (2017), and an episode of The King of Queens (1998). Bob Rivers released a parody of the song for his 2000 Christmas album Chipmunks Roasting on an Open Fire . The song was featured in the 2007 live-action film Alvin and the Chipmunks, and a remix of the song was created for the movie and entered the Hot 100. The song helped launch the multimillion-dollar Alvin and the Chipmunks brand. It

588-504: The Movies . Previous Chipmunk activity ceased in 1972 with the untimely death of franchise creator/producer Ross Bagdasarian Sr. (also known as David Seville) from a heart attack . Though this release followed a long dormancy record-wise, the characters had returned to public view via Saturday morning repeats of the cartoon series The Alvin Show on NBC in 1979. The album sparked a second run of

630-456: The No. 4 song for 1958. After the song’ s success, Seville came up with three singing chipmunks who were named, as an inside joke, after executives at Liberty Records. The chipmunks were Alvin (named after Al Bennett), Simon (named after Simon Waronker ), and Theodore ( Ted Keep ). One phrase in the chorus has Alvin wishing for a hula hoop , which was that year's hot new toy. The novelty record

672-554: The album featured covers of songs by The Knack (" My Sharona ," " Good Girls Don't ," " Frustrated "), The Cars (" Let's Go "), Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (" Refugee "), Billy Joel (" You May Be Right "), Queen (" Crazy Little Thing Called Love "), and Linda Ronstadt (" How Do I Make You "). Chipmunk Punk marked the rebirth of the Chipmunk franchise. It was the first new Chipmunk release since 1969's The Chipmunks Go to

714-554: The band have never quite recaptured the bite and edge that they had before making their first million. Alvin still sings well but somehow you can tell that his heart isn't in it anymore." While a critic for the Somerset Standard called it "a fun record", James Belsey of the Bristol Post called it "humourless" and "silly". In 2015, Canadian musician Brian Borcherdt posted recordings of the album on Soundcloud which slowed down

756-463: The breaking news and views of the day. The progressive format thrived on KMET throughout the 1970s and into the early 1980s, at one time becoming one of the most successful FM stations in the country. But changing trends in music, culture and society, and the advent of strict formatting in radio eventually turned KMET into a relic. The station experienced staff turnover, radio consultants, tight playlists and an increasingly-impersonal approach typical of

798-450: The characters and led to another Saturday morning cartoon series, Alvin and the Chipmunks , which began in 1983 and also aired on NBC. The album met mixed critical reviews. Doug Stone of Allmusic called it "good clean fun" which "if nothing else...provides a portrait of a prime period in radio," but Rolling Stone panned it, describing the album as a symptom of corporate greed in the world of television animation . Peter Goddard of

840-484: The digital track by The Chipmunks at 867,000 downloads, placing it third on the list of all-time best-selling Christmas/holiday digital singles in SoundScan history (behind Mariah Carey 's 1994 hit single " All I Want for Christmas Is You " and Trans-Siberian Orchestra 's 1996 track " Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24 "). The Chipmunk Song is a popular Christmas song that has been featured in movies and television, and has been

882-603: The distinction of being the only Christmas record to reach No. 1 on the same chart until Mariah Carey 's " All I Want for Christmas Is You " did so 61 years later in 2019. The song was certified Gold by the RIAA as one of the best-selling physical Christmas singles in the United States . Between 1958 and 1962, the single re-entered the Hot 100 several times, peaking at No. 41 in 1958, No. 45 in 1960, and No. 39 in 1962. (Starting in 1963, Billboard would list recurrent Christmas songs on

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924-710: The entire KMET on-air staff on February 9, 1987, signing off its album rock format at Noon on February 14, 1987, with The Beatles' "Golden Slumbers Medley" (Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight / The End). KMET was replaced by the new-age KTWV "The Wave". Today, "The Wave" has evolved into a Smooth Jazz format, though now plays Urban Adult Contemporary and is owned by Entercom , which merged with CBS Radio in 2017. The KMET call letters have been since reassigned to an AM Talk radio station, KMET in Banning, California . On June 21, 2009, Los Angeles radio station KSWD ("The Sound 100.3") announced that on July 10, 2009, it would do

966-431: The ever delinquent Alvin. It was cute at the time. Now, perhaps any of these cuts including Linda Ronstadt 's hit How Do I Make You, Tom Petty's Refugee, The Cars ' Let's Go, Blondie 's Call Me and Queen 's Crazy Little Thing Called Love would have been a chuckle as a novelty single but as a collection they wear pretty thin pretty quickly. Save your money. Gus Walker of The Arizona Republic had this to say about

1008-481: The hearts of ell right thinking four-year-olds vie children's radio programmes on both sides of the Atlantic. Their return from retirement is, however, ill-advised es "Chipmunk Punk" shows. For starters, it doesn't have an awful lot to do with punk, consisting as it does of various screeching cover versions of tunes made famous by The Knack, Tom Petty, Blondie and Queen(?). The general consensus of opinion around here Is that

1050-527: The imprint of Simon, Theodore and Alvin, who sang hits such as " The Chipmunk Song " and " Alvin's Harmonica " in the late 1950s. This time, the Chipmunks do their own versions of corporate new wave, with helium-toned voices chirping the words to hits by the Cars, the Knack , Billy Joel, Tom Petty and others. Heard for the first time on the car radio, the joke is funny. At home on the turntable, and listened to more than once,

1092-500: The joke gets thin. But kids will love this, even though they may think it's " The Bee Gees Sing the Top 10." Most reviews of Chipmunk Punk , even those that were positive, criticized the track listing as featuring comparatively little punk rock in favor of more commercial pop rock and new wave music of the era. In 1994, comedy punk band The Radioactive Chicken Heads recorded a cover of Suicidal Tendencies ' " Institutionalized " in

1134-588: The more mainstream album oriented rock format. KMET is also notable for broadcasting the program The Mighty METal Hour, which was hosted by Jim Ladd on Friday nights from 10PM to midnight, and showcased the music of many then-up-and-coming hard rock and heavy metal bands, including Metallica , Slayer , Megadeth , Anthrax , Iron Maiden , Queensrÿche , Mötley Crüe , Motörhead , Y&T , Metal Church , Great White , Armored Saint , Dio , W.A.S.P. , Ratt , Quiet Riot , Twisted Sister , Saxon , Riot , Loudness , Warrior and Agent Steel . Metromedia fired

1176-603: The most listened-to Sunday evening radio program in Los Angeles. Following Dr. Demento on Sunday nights, Mike Harrison hosted a phone-in talk show called Harrison's Mike . KMET aired live concerts that went on to become seminal recordings. David Bowie's show at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on 20 October 1972 during the Ziggy Stardust Tour was aired by KMET. Bootlegs of the broadcast were widely distributed, even in chain record stores, before it gained

1218-532: The program director for much of the era preceding the film. Much of the history of KMET is documented in Jim Ladd's book Radio Waves , where the station is referred to as Radio KAOS and many of the DJs are given pseudonyms. Arguably, 1978 was the pinnacle year at the station. The line-up was impressive. Jeff Gonzer, Bob Coburn, Cynthia Fox, Jack Snyder, Mary Turner, and Jim Ladd. Ace Young and Patrick 'Paraquat' Kelley provided

1260-498: The record: They say recording the Chipmunk octave isn't easy. First, you slow down the instrumental track to half speed, then hold each vocal note twice as long. By the end of a session the singers are pooped. Well, I'm here to say that listening to the Chipmunks sing punk is also a chore. By the end of one song that fake falsetto is harder on the nerves than a dentist's drill. Wayne Robins of Newsday wrote that it was: A marketing executive's stroke of genius, reviving

1302-460: The recordings to 16 revolutions per minute , and titled the project "Chipmunks on 16 Speed". Chris Dart of The A.V. Club described the resulting recordings as sounding like sludge metal . Track listing per AllMusic. KMET (FM) KMET was a Los Angeles FM radio station owned by Metromedia (hence the "MET" in its call sign) that broadcast at 94.7 MHz beginning on May 2, 1966. It signed off permanently on February 14, 1987 after

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1344-518: The same chart by the Teddy Bears , a pop group that featured Phil Spector . At the height of its popularity, Bagdasarian and three chipmunk hand-puppets appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show , lip-synching the song. "The Chipmunk Song" appeared on the Chipmunks' debut album, Let's All Sing with the Chipmunks , in 1959, and was repeated on Christmas with the Chipmunks , released in 1962. The song also has been included on several compilation albums. It had

1386-406: The selections offered here may be appealing a cross-section of modern hits ranging from the Knack's My Sharona to Billy Joel's You May Be Right you may find the vocals strange. Back in the early '60s, the Chipmunks surfaced as the brainchild of David Seville who recorded novelty records featuring, doctored vocals' (mostly speeded up) to simulate the voices of three cute chipmunks, Simon, Theodore and

1428-414: The stage name of David Seville ) in 1958. Bagdasarian sang the song, varying the tape speeds to produce high-pitched " chipmunk " voices, with the vocals credited to Alvin and the Chipmunks , Seville's cartoon virtual band and later media franchise . The song won three Grammy Awards in 1958, for Best Comedy Performance , Best Children's Recording , and Best Engineered Record (non-classical) ; it

1470-548: The station. At the time, the studios of KMET and its local AM counterpart, country-western KLAC , were located across the street from the La Brea Tar Pits on Wilshire Blvd. In Summer 1976, both stations moved to the then-Metromedia complex where KTTV Channel 11 was located. KMET stood in direct contrast to other music stations of the era. KMET and other progressive-rock stations played more eclectic artists with much longer songs and more socially-conscious lyrics than

1512-483: The strike looked hopeless (the owners had hired scabs to continue the rock programming), Tom Donahue looked elsewhere, and eventually convinced Metromedia to install KPPC's format at KMET in June 1968. They did likewise at KMET's sister station, KSAN-FM in San Francisco. Many of the personalities at both stations transferred to Metromedia. The KPPC format was only mildly successful. After leaving KROQ AM/FM , Shadoe Stevens

1554-693: The style of Alvin and the Chipmunks specifically due to lead singer Carrot Topp's dissatisfaction with the song choices on Chipmunk Punk . The album received mixed-to-negative reviews in the United Kingdom . Smash Hits wrote, "we feel a duty to warn you of an album that has recently wormed its way into the racks of your local discerie, a phonographic item entitled 'Chipmunk Punk' by (you guessed it) The Chipmunks. Since their original emergence in The Fifties, this trio of furry dopey looking crltters—Alvin, Simon end Theodore—have squeaked their high-pitched way into

1596-490: The witch doctor responds in a high-pitched squeaky voice with a nonsense incantation which creates an earworm . Seville recording his own voice which was sung slowly but recorded at half speed on the tape recorder, then played back at normal speed, thereby speeding up the voice into a high-pitched squeaky one. The song was a hit, holding number one for three weeks in the Billboard Hot 100 chart, ranked by Billboard as

1638-453: Was also nominated for Record of the Year . After the success of " Witch Doctor " in early 1958, Liberty Records asked Bagdasarian to create another successful novelty record. He then came up with three singing chipmunks. In 1958, Ross Bagdasarian released a novelty song (as David Seville) about being unsuccessful at love until he found a witch doctor who told him how to woo his woman;

1680-460: Was highly successful, selling 4.5 million copies in seven weeks. It eventually sold 12 million copies. Before the song's success, "The Chipmunk Song" was featured on American Bandstand ' s "Rate-A-Record" segment and received the lowest possible rating of 35 across the board. It spent four weeks at Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart from December 22, 1958, to January 12, 1959, succeeding " To Know Him Is to Love Him " at Number 1 on

1722-493: Was hired by General Manager L. David Moorhead in 1974 to create something new for the struggling format KMET had put in place. With a staff that included B. Mitchell Reed, Stevens, Jimmy Rabbitt, Brother John, and Mary ("The Burner") Turner, Stevens introduced a new rock format that retained some of Donahue's progressive freedom but gave it energy and consistency that featured programming and high production values similar to those that had been integrated at KROQ. Stevens also designed

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1764-462: Was originally written by Shadoe Stevens and the song was sung by the Pointer Sisters during an interview on his show. This ID "jingle" came to be emblematic for KMET. Stevens left in 1975 to begin a production company and the station's programing was taken over by Sam Bellamy. Ms. Bellamy, who had been hired from Billboard Magazine , had been Stevens' assistant for most of the time he programmed

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