answers: 1958
context: become "more popular than Jesus", by recalling how the Chipmunks had fallen in popularity after Alvin boasted they were "bigger than Mickey Mouse!". In 1985, the Chipmunks, along with the Chipettes, were featured in the live stage show, "Alvin and the Chipmunks and the Amazing Computer". In 1987, during the fifth season of the show on television, the Chipmunks had their first animated feature film, "The Chipmunk Adventure", directed by Janice Karman and Ross Bagdasarian Jr. and released to theaters by The Samuel Goldwyn Company. The film featured the Chipmunks and the Chipettes in a contest traveling around the world. </s> a duet with his own sped-up voice as the bird. It also reached the Top 40, peaking at No. 34. While driving in Sequoia National Park, Bagdasarian saw a chipmunk dash in front of him. That moment inspired him to create his chipmunk characters. The technique was imitated by Sheb Wooley's "Purple People Eater" and The Big Bopper's "The Purple People Eater Meets the Witch Doctor." The Chipmunks first officially appeared on the scene in a novelty record released in late fall 1958 by Bagdasarian. The song, originally listed on the record label (Liberty F-55168) as "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas </s> Chipmunk Song" becoming a number-one single in the United States. After Bagdasarian's death in 1972, the characters' voices were performed by his son Ross Bagdasarian Jr. and the latter's wife Janice Karman in the subsequent incarnations of the 1980s and 1990s. In the 2007 CGI/live-action film adaptation and its , they were voiced in dialogue by Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler and Jesse McCartney. Bagdasarian Jr. and Karman continue to perform the singing voices for Alvin, Theodore and the Chipettes, but Steve Vining does Simon's singing voice. The project has earned five Grammy awards, an American Music Award, a Golden
question: when did alvin and the chipmunks first come out