Rostom Sipan "Ross" Bagdasarian (January 27, 1919 – January 16, 1972) was an American Grammy Award winning pianist, singer, songwriter, actor and record producer. He was better known by the stage name David Seville, which he used on his recordings featuring Alvin and the Chipmunks.
Bagdasarian was born in Fresno, California into a family of Armenian origin. As a young man, he performed in the Broadway cast of The Time of Your Life, written by his...
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Rostom Sipan "Ross" Bagdasarian (January 27, 1919 – January 16, 1972) was an American Grammy Award winning pianist, singer, songwriter, actor and record producer. He was better known by the stage name David Seville, which he used on his recordings featuring Alvin and the Chipmunks.
Bagdasarian was born in Fresno, California into a family of Armenian origin. As a young man, he performed in the Broadway cast of The Time of Your Life, written by his famous cousin, William Saroyan. Bagdasarian's first musical success was the song he wrote with Saroyan, "Come on-a My House," recorded by Rosemary Clooney in 1951. The lyrics are based on dialogue from Saroyan's novel The Human Comedy. They wrote the song on the post-Broadway tour bus of The Time of Your Life in 1939, and recorded it under their own names as a duet (Saroyan speaking the narrative, Bagdasarian delivering the lyrics in dialect) for Coral Records. ("Come on-a My House" inspired an answer record, "Where's-a Your House?" by Robert...
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