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:: Mediocre ::

:: Almost Good ::

:: Flip Side ::

Phil wrote a piece about Ross Bagdasarian / David Seville last August, so I won't bore you with much history. I will say though, he co-wrote "Come On-A My House", which was a huge hit for Rosemary Clooney in 1951. Well, that impressed the hell out of me anyway.

The 3 songs featured here today are all B sides of Chipmunks hits, and are credited to David Seville. There's an obvious, consistent thread running through all of these mostly instrumental ditties, proving that humor really does belong in music.

One of these records I've had my whole life, or all but the first 2 years of it maybe. I loved "Alvin's Harmonica" and played it to death on my kiddie record player, which looked something like this.



Since I tended to play every record I had over and over, I'd listen to the B sides as well. Therefore "Mediocre" is very familiar to me. Even though I was very young, I think I still got the joke, which explains why Bagdasarian was such a hit with the younguns. You can hear how this record was abused. It's in the grooves, man.

"Almost Good" is the B side of "The Chipmunk Song" and "Flip Side" is the flip side of "Ragtime Cowboy Joe". I acquired those two records just in the last couple of years, and was charmed by Bagdasarian's approach to B side etiquette. I think I used to have a copy of "The Witch Doctor", but probably smeared too many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on it, and now I don't remember what the B side was. Ah, such is life.

Mike

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