Доктор Вуду и секрет чипманковской магии голоса

Single by Ross Bagdasarian

"Witch Doctor" is a 1958 American novelty song written and performed by Ross Bagdasarian, under his stage name David Seville. It became a number one hit and rescued Liberty Records from near bankruptcy. In the song, the singer asks a witch doctor for romantic advice; the witch doctor responds in a high pitched squeaky voice with a nonsense incantation which creates an earworm. The technique developed in this song for the voice of the witch doctor was later used for the creation of the voices of the Alvin and the Chipmunks.

David Seville wrote the song, inspired by a book titled Duel with the Witch Doctor on his bookshelf. In the song, the narrator asks a witch doctor for advice on what to do because he has fallen in love with a girl, and the witch doctor replies with a gibberish line: "Oo ee, oo ah ah, ting tang, walla walla bing bang, oo ee, oo ah ah, ting tang, walla walla bang bang". and he borrowed an idea that Les Paul had introduced (to create impossibly high pitched guitar parts): He recorded his voice at a different speed to create a dialogue between him 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 Seville's 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). Seville recorded the music first, and then experimented with the process for creating the singing voice for two months before recording it in the studio. The same technique used for creating the voice of the witch doctor was used in Seville's next song "The Bird on My Head", and then more significantly the highly successful Chipmunks (also known as Alvin and the Chipmunks) beginning with "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)" released for the Christmas of 1958. and The Big Bopper, who parodied both songs on "The Purple People Eater Meets The Witch Doctor", which was originally released as a single, but it was its flip side "Chantilly Lace" that became the hit.

The song peaked at on the Billboard Top 100, the predecessor to the Billboard Hot 100. The single was considered a major surprise hit on the chart, where it became Seville and Liberty Records' first single, and stayed in the position for three weeks. The single also peaked at on the Billboard R&B chart 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 black radio stations and customers. The single had sold 1.4 million copies in the United States by December 1958. Billboard ranked it as the No. 4 song for 1958.

The song has gained further popularity due to multiple covers performed by Alvin and the Chipmunks, another David Seville creation. The first was for their 1960 album Sing Again with The Chipmunks, which would later be adapted into a musical segment on The Alvin Show. In 1983, they would perform this song on the Alvin and the Chipmunks episode "The Chipmunk Story" and the soundtrack Songs From Our TV Shows. The Chipmunk Adventure (1987) featured the song when sung by Mrs. Miller. The song was used for the opening of the 1990 TV special Rockin' Through the Decades in the style of various artists. In 2007, a DeeTown remix cover featuring Chris Classic was recorded for the live action/CGI Alvin and the Chipmunks film. This version reached No. 62 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 2008.

Danish band Cartoons covered "Witch Doctor" for their 1998 debut album, Toonage. Released on October 26, 1998, their version charted well in Europe, reaching the Top 40 in several countries, and peaking at on the UK Singles Chart in March 1999.

RegionDateFormat(s)Label(s)Ref. (Reference)DenmarkOctober 26, 1998CDFLEX Records, FLEX, EMI Records, EMIUnited KingdomMarch 22, 1999CD, cassette

Don Lang recorded a version similar to David Seville's recording. This version reached No. 5 on the UK chart in June 1958. The new wave band DEVO recorded a version for the soundtrack of The Rugrats Movie. Although the title, chorus and tune are the same, the verses were changed to be about how monkeys have more fun than humans, a fitting theme for both the film's monkey characters and DEVO itself. Melinda Marx performed the song on her father Groucho Marx' television program You Bet Your Life.