It started out as a clever-enough idea. In 1958, Ross Bagdasarian, a Broadway actor who’d had a pretty good role as a pianist in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 masterpiece Rear Window, started experimenting ...

The Number Ones is a new column where I'll review every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart's beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present.

Alvin and the Chipmunks, a global phenomenon to generations of fans, becomes a live action/CGI motion picture event with a contemporary comic sensibility. Songwriter Dave Seville transforms singing ...

This undated photo released by The Lippin Group public relations firm shows Ross Bagdasarian Jr. and his wife Janice Karman with stuffed chipmunks, from left, Theodore, Alvin and Simon. SANTA BARBARA, ...

John F. Kennedy was running for president in 1960 when he jotted off a memo to a songwriter. "I'm glad to know that I have at least one worthy opponent," the note said. Kennedy wasn't referring to ...

More than hyperactive enough to engage small fry with microscopic attention spans, "Alvin and the Chipmunks" also has built-in nostalgia appeal for baby-boomer parents and grandparents willing to ...