Biography
Although the Chipmunks pioneered cartoon-pop rodents, the Nutty Squirrels ultimately surpassed them in musical sophistication and wit. Jazz vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Don Elliott joined forces with jingle writer Alexander "Sascha" Burland to create the act, applying accelerated vocal techniques reminiscent of Ross Bagdasarian's method while emphasizing superior jazz arrangements, sharper humor, and contributions from luminaries such as saxophonist Cannonball Adderley. The duo also reached television a full year ahead of Alvin, Simon, and Theodore, despite the Chipmunks arriving first in stores.
Elliott and Burland already possessed notable commercial credentials before forming the Nutty Squirrels in 1959. Elliott stood out as the leading advocate for the jazz mellophone and an inventive scat singer who explored multi-tracking and variable tape speeds, layering up to nine vocal tracks on his album The Voices of Don Elliott. Burland, an orchestra leader based in Hollywood, gained recognition for penning the theme to the popular game show What's My Line? and for assembling Swingin' the Jingles on Riverside, an album that fused advertising melodies with jazz and featured trumpeter Maynard Ferguson. Both men focused heavily on Madison Avenue advertising work by the late 1950s; the enormous success of "The Chipmunk Song" in late 1958 prompted them to pursue a similar opportunity.
Bagdasarian, recording under the name David Seville, had generated the Chipmunks' distinctive sound by capturing vocals at 16 rpm and replaying them at the standard 33⅓ rpm, yielding helium-like high-pitched voices. Numerous copycats emerged after that hit, yet few matched the credentials or inventiveness of Elliott and Burland. Eschewing the Chipmunks' saccharine style, the Nutty Squirrels projected a beatnik persona complete with goatees, dark suits, and berets, delivered in authentic hipster slang. Exploiting stereo separation to place each vocal on its own channel and drawing on Elliott's scat expertise, the pair enlisted elite jazz players including Adderley, flutist Bobby Jaspar, and clarinetist Sam Most for the self-titled 1959 Hanover debut, released on the label founded by comedian Steve Allen and producer Bob Thiele.
The single "Uh-Oh, Pt. 2" reached the pop Top 20 by the end of that year, spurring immediate plans for an animated series. Although Format Films had already green-lit a Chipmunks program, production delays allowed Transfilm-Wilde to deliver 100 five-minute Nutty Squirrels episodes to syndication in September 1960, a year before the Chipmunks premiered. Despite some smaller stations rejecting the show's pronounced jazz elements, it thrived in major cities, notably airing six days a week on Chicago superstation WGN. A follow-up LP, Bird Watching, surfaced the same year but did not replicate the chart performance of the first album. After one last joint project—the 1964 Beatles tribute The Nutty Squirrels Sing 'A Hard Day's Night'—Elliott and Burland parted ways.
Elliott and Burland already possessed notable commercial credentials before forming the Nutty Squirrels in 1959. Elliott stood out as the leading advocate for the jazz mellophone and an inventive scat singer who explored multi-tracking and variable tape speeds, layering up to nine vocal tracks on his album The Voices of Don Elliott. Burland, an orchestra leader based in Hollywood, gained recognition for penning the theme to the popular game show What's My Line? and for assembling Swingin' the Jingles on Riverside, an album that fused advertising melodies with jazz and featured trumpeter Maynard Ferguson. Both men focused heavily on Madison Avenue advertising work by the late 1950s; the enormous success of "The Chipmunk Song" in late 1958 prompted them to pursue a similar opportunity.
Bagdasarian, recording under the name David Seville, had generated the Chipmunks' distinctive sound by capturing vocals at 16 rpm and replaying them at the standard 33⅓ rpm, yielding helium-like high-pitched voices. Numerous copycats emerged after that hit, yet few matched the credentials or inventiveness of Elliott and Burland. Eschewing the Chipmunks' saccharine style, the Nutty Squirrels projected a beatnik persona complete with goatees, dark suits, and berets, delivered in authentic hipster slang. Exploiting stereo separation to place each vocal on its own channel and drawing on Elliott's scat expertise, the pair enlisted elite jazz players including Adderley, flutist Bobby Jaspar, and clarinetist Sam Most for the self-titled 1959 Hanover debut, released on the label founded by comedian Steve Allen and producer Bob Thiele.
The single "Uh-Oh, Pt. 2" reached the pop Top 20 by the end of that year, spurring immediate plans for an animated series. Although Format Films had already green-lit a Chipmunks program, production delays allowed Transfilm-Wilde to deliver 100 five-minute Nutty Squirrels episodes to syndication in September 1960, a year before the Chipmunks premiered. Despite some smaller stations rejecting the show's pronounced jazz elements, it thrived in major cities, notably airing six days a week on Chicago superstation WGN. A follow-up LP, Bird Watching, surfaced the same year but did not replicate the chart performance of the first album. After one last joint project—the 1964 Beatles tribute The Nutty Squirrels Sing 'A Hard Day's Night'—Elliott and Burland parted ways.
Albums