I received an email recently inquiring about the value of the old Chipmunk albums and I thought I would share it with you.
Hello Robert,
I have several albums by the Chipmunks and I am curious of the value, can you shed some light on this for me?
Hazel,Long Beach CA
Hi Hazel,
I would be happy to share what I know about these fictional creatures and a very hot commodity in the late 50's and early sixties The particular record you have ("Let's All Sing With The Chipmunks"/Liberty 3132/1959)is worth about $25-40 in near mint (NM) condition. Now if you had the same record, on red vinyl and the Chipmunks were drawn as animals, that particular LP is worth $50-75 in NM condition.
In the record price guides, the value of the Chipmunk records are all worth more if they are drawn as animals, like the pic shown. If they are drawn as cartoon characters, you deduct 50%. Since the album you have they are drawn as animals, and is on black vinyl, you do not deduct the %50. A little history about the Chipmunks:
The Chipmunks were fictional musical group, created by Ross Bagdasarian in 1958. They consist of three singing chipmunks: Alvin, the mischievous troublemaker, who was the star of the group, Simon, the tall bespectacled intellectual, and Theodore, the chubby one. The trio were "managed" by David Seville. In reality, David Seville was Ross Bagdasarian's stage name, and the Chipmunks were named after the executives of their original record label, Liberty Records: Alvin Bennett (the president), Simon Waronker (the founder and owner), and Theodore Keep (the chief engineer).
The Chipmunks started out as "recording artists" and then they moved into the movies and cartoons. They actually hit #1 on the Billboard Top 100 with the novelty song "Witch Doctor"
Thank for your question and I hope that I have "shed some light" on your dilema.
Regards,
Robert