Witch Doctor (song)
| "Witch Doctor" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Ross Bagdasarian | ||||
| from the album Sing Again with The Chipmunks | ||||
| B-side | "Don't Whistle at Me, Baby" | |||
| Released | April 1958 | |||
| Genre | Novelty | |||
| Length | 2:15
| |||
| Label | Liberty | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Ross Bagdasarian | |||
| Producer(s) | Ross Bagdasarian | |||
| Ross Bagdasarian singles chronology | ||||
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"Witch Doctor" is a 1958 American novelty song written and recorded by Ross Bagdasarian (under the stage name of David Seville). Bagdasarian sang the song, varying the tape speeds to produce a high-pitched voice for the titular witch doctor; this technique was later used in his next song, "The Bird on My Head", and for the creation of the voices of his virtual band Alvin and the Chipmunks. The song became a number one hit and rescued Liberty Records from near-bankruptcy; it held number one for three weeks in the Billboard Hot 100 chart, ranked by Billboard as the No. 4 song for 1958.
In the song, the narrator asks a witch doctor for romantic advice because he has fallen in love with a girl; the witch doctor responds in a high-pitched, squeaky voice with a nonsense incantation which creates an earworm: "Oo-ee-oo-ah-ah, ting-tang, walla-walla-bing-bang."