“Christmas Don’t Be Late” by Kacey Musgraves, Thursday, December 7, 2023

In 1958, Ross Bagdasarian experimented with tape speeds in the recording studio. He learned that if he sped up the tape, the vocal performance would sound high-pitched and would play at a faster tempo. He used the effect he had learned on a novelty single, “The Witch Doctor,” under the name David Seville. The song reached number 1 on Billboard Hot 100 and laid the groundwork for Bagdasarian’s next single, in which he used the effect more than just for a “witch doctor voice.” Ross thought that the voices of the sped-up tape sounded like chipmunks, and with some tweaking of the tempo, requiring him to sing at about half speed, he was able to make his chipmunks sing along with a human, a fictionalized manager of the mischievous rodents, David Seville. Bagdasarian founded the fictional band David Seville and the Chipmunks when he released his second single titled “The Chipmunk Song” (Christmas Don’t Be Late). The song topped the newly created Billboard Hot 100 chart and would be the first of only three Christmas songs that topped Billboard’s flagship chart. The others are Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” and Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” which topped the chart just this week for the first time. Today, we will listen to Kacey Musgraves’ version and it will be the basis for my 2023 Christmas Mix. Hope you enjoy it!