The song tells the story of a man in love with a woman who initially does not return his affections. Longing for her companionship, the man goes to see a witch doctor for advice. The wise Witch Doctor replies, "oo ee oo aa aa, ting, tang, walla walla bing bang". In the middle of the song, the man tells the woman he loves about his asking the Witch Doctor for advice. The voice of the "Witch Doctor" was in fact Bagdasarian's own voice sped-up to double speed, a technique later exploited by Bagdasarian to create Alvin and the Chipmunks. Because of this, it is often referred to as the first song by the Chipmunks; this is not precisely true. For one, only one sped-up "chipmunk-style" voice is featured rather than three such voices singing in harmony. Furthermore, Bagdasarian insisted that it was not technically a Chipmunks song in a second version from the 1960 Chipmunks album Sing Again with the Chipmunks, when he says to the Chipmunks "I don't know, fellas, I made that record once!", to which Alvin responds "Yeah, but not with us! Come on!" The first song to truly be by the "group" was "The Chipmunk Song."
Chart performance
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's first single and stayed in the position for three weeks. The single also peaked at on the Billboard R&B chart and on the Cash Box chart as well. The single sold over one million copies in the United States. Billboard ranked it as the No. 4 song for 1958.
Alvin and the Chipmunks versions
The song has gained further popularity due to multiple covers performed by Alvin and the Chipmunks. 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 song was used for the opening of the 1990 TV special Rockin' Through the Decades in the style of various artists. In 1996, a dance mix cover was recorded for the album . In 2007, a DeeTown cover was recorded for the live-action/CGI Alvin and the Chipmunks movie. In 2012, they released a duet cover with The Chipettes entitled "Witch Doctor 2.0" available for digital download on the iTunes Store.
Covers
The first cover version was recorded in 1958 by the British musician Don Lang and made the UK Top 10. A sequel of sorts, "Witch Doctor Bump", by funk band the Chubukos, including Chipmunk-style novelty voices, appeared in the Record World charts in late 1973, rising as high as in a 10-week chart stay. Marvin Suggs and his Muppetophone performed the song on an episode of The Muppet Show. A version performed by Devo was in The Rugrats Movie as part of an animated sequence.
Another version of the song was by the Danish band Cartoons, on their 1998 debut album Toonage. Their version charted well in Europe, reaching the top forty in many countries, as well as peaking at on the UK Singles Chart. A Spanish and an Italian version both appear on the album Toontastic, while an Italian version also appears on the album More Toonage. The Cartoons' cover was also featured in the Dancemania compilation series and Dance Dance Revolutiongame series, starting with DDRMAX Dance Dance Revolution 6thMix.
