Infotainment: How Alvin And The Chipmunks Came To Be.

For no reason, here's the story:

"Ross Bagdasarian Sr. (who went by the stage name 'David Seville') was an actor who appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window and on Broadway in William Saroyan's Time of Your Life. He wrote novelty dialect songs, including Rosemary Clooney's huge hit 'Come On-A My House', and released a few records but his successes never seemed to result in very much money in his pocket. He bought a tape recorder with his last $200 and played around with shifting the speeds, coming up with a novelty song titled 'Witch Doctor'. He got the single released and two weeks later, he found himself appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show performing the song."

The rest of his meteoric rise is here. So now you know.