NOTABLE ARKANSANS

He was born in 1926, in Joiner, Mississippi County. He, along with his younger three siblings, grew up working on the family farm and attended Shawnee School in Joiner, graduating in 1943. After a one-year stint in the Army, he returned to farming and married Cathleen Whitlock of Sheridan. They had three children: Wayne, Keith and Adalah.

After financial setbacks, he eventually took a job in nearby Memphis, as a salesman for Decca Records before becoming national sales manager with Dot Records in Gallatin, Tenn. In 1958, he moved to Los Angeles, to become Vice President of Liberty Records, which was deeply in debt.

Searching through Liberty’s inventory of unreleased recordings, he chose to release just one record, “The Witch Doctor” sung by Ross Bagdasarian, under his stage name, David Seville. It peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 100 and the Cash Box chart as well. He then called on Bagdasarian’s help, once again, and released “The Chipmunk Song.” The song reached No. 1 on the Billboard Top 100 Pop Chart and received three Grammy Awards, and has been a Christmas favorite ever since. In just one year, he led the company from insolvency to being an industry leader.

In 1962, Liberty Records was sold to Avnet for $12 million. Two years later, Avnet was unsuccessful; he then bought Liberty back for only $8 million, before selling the company to Transamerica Corporation in 1968 for $38 million. Six months later he left Liberty and founded Cream Records. In 1977, he also bought two successful Memphis-based companies, Hi and Stax Records, only to sell them again in 1979, retaining ownership of the extremely valuable Hi master tapes.

Throughout his career he divided his time between residences in Sherman Oaks, Calif. and Joiner, where he owned Benshaw Farms. He died in 1989 and is buried in Bassett Cemetery, near Joiner.

Who was this recording industry mogul, for whom the lead chipmunk in “The Chipmunk Song” was named?

Who was this recording industry mogul, for whom the lead chipmunk in “The Chipmunk Song” was named?

Alvin (Al) Bennett