Chipmunque Clips

I remember “borrowing” this Chipmunks album from my brother back in the early ’80s. He didn’t realize that back then I was secretly compiling my Queen collection, and with his new record containing a helium-induced version of Crazy Little Thing Called Love, I needed to have it.

At that time, the analogue technology for creating those squeaky chipmunk voices were pretty rudimentary, from what I understand. Basically, record the voices at a tape speed that is half as fast as normal, then play it back at normal speed and, voila, squeaky voices. Doing it today is probably a bit easier given the inexpensive digital tools available, which may account for the deluge of Chipmunk cover tunes that are on YouTube these days.

Queen songs get a sizable share of the Chipmunk online presence, as I discovered. Here are the clips I found:

Another One Bites the Dust
Bohemian Rhapsody
Don’t Stop Me Now
Hammer To Fall
I Can’t Live With You
I Want To Break Free
Keep Yourself Alive
Radio Gaga
Somebody to Love
These Are the Days of Our Lives
Tie Your Mother Down
Under Pressure
We Will Rock You / We Are the Champions

And to double-up on the parodies, there’s even a Chipmunk’s version of Weird Al’s tribute to Bohemian Rhapsody:

Bohemian Polka

I wonder what Monserat Caballe’s voice would sound like if it was given the Chipmunk treatment for Barcelona?