Chipmunk Records Have Value

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

More great album covers

Rare Record Or Just A Production Mistake?

I received an email from a gentleman asking about a specific record he owned. The record, an lp released by Vandenberg from 1986, had a label on one side that was blank...no printing on it; but the other side was ok, listing the cuts that were on the record.

I have heard of this before and it turns out that this is just a production error and does not increase that record's value. This happens sometimes in the factory and I have a couple in my collection as well.

I want to thank "Mighty John Marshall" of www.moneymusic.com for his honest and professional opinions. Which brings me to a important point. Mighty John Marshall does online appraisals at his site and for a nominal fee can help you ascertain if your record is of great value, or just a common one. I highly recommend him!

This is one of my favorite album covers "Houses Of The Holy" by the classic rock band Led Zeppelin. I'd love to hear about yours!

Album Cover Art

Album cover art has long been a part of the collectible record, with hundreds of artists lending their skills for the album cover. Here are several links that you can view to explore this phenomenon:

http://www.vinylunderground.net/index.html

http://www.artvinyl.com/

http://tralfaz-archives.com/coverart/coverart.html

http://www.albumcovers.net/

http://rateyourmusic.com/lists/list_view?list_id=5747&show=25&start=0

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