Which musician retired too soon?

Alvin was not a one hit wonder. There were at least 2 top 10 songs, Witch Doctor in 1958 and Christmas Song in 1963 come to mind. Others may not have charted so high.

It didn't get much airplay but "Chipmunk Punk" was the anthem for the late 70's and 80's punk movement.

Alvin never retired. He's in every record you have. Just speed it up and you'll realize he is behind all recorded music.

I don't think Alvin did the Witch Doctor song; that (I'm pretty sure) was done by some DJ kinda like the Disco Duck song in 1976. Now there's a guy who stopped too soon.

I have an old Denon CD player with 12% pitch control. Damn if I didn't hear good old Alvin on everything I tried.

The original "Witch Doctor" was released in 1958 by David Seville and the Chipmunks. Now if you want to place money on that..................

OOOPS, my mistake. It was David Seville in 1958 but he had not yet introduced the Chipmunks into his act. The falsetto voice in "Witch Doctor" eventually became the Chipmunks. All bets are off. :-)

as all good things must change....alvin,theodore and simon reached premature adolesence and they're voices changed dramatically!
is it just rare that at this very time who should appear but the "bee gee's'?
hmmmm...
azjake

Frank Zappa is not dead!

specifically excluding the dead folks:

delevante brothers - quit after 2 great records (n.b. bob d. folllowed with a so-so solo "porchlight")
john croslin - quit the reivers after stage fright problems
glenn mercer and bill million of the (presumably) late, lamented feelies

i'm sure there are a ton of others out there too.

Yeah, we're pretty sure Frank's dead.

Boy,these threads do go far and wide away from topic and I didn't know that retired and dead were synonymous.Not attempting to wade through all of the responses I didn't see Shuggie Otis's name. Now there is a guy that more or less retired before he was twenty.That's really early. Too bad for us. :^(

John Coltrane

after posting john croslin (ex-reivers) in response to this thread last week, i googled his name to follow up. as it turns out, 10+ years after calling it quits... he's back!... with a new band - "the fire marshals of bethlehem". notwithstanding the opaque band name, the music (at first listen) seems worthwhile. it's reminiscent of his old stuff, but prominently features a fiddle (and equally prominently lacks the quirky reivers' harmonies). if you're a fan, it's definately worth checking out.

MACEO PARKER is not retired but he does not put out new CDs as often as I wish. His CDs 'Roots Revisited' and 'Mo Roots' made him more popular than ever. I, for one, found out that half of his talent was not utilized when he played for James Brown. On these two albums, he turned some good vocal songs into jazz with great success (I think one of them won him jazz CD of the year) but after that he tried to infuse rap into his music and even went as low as playing for Prince. I wish he would go back to his roots and keep puttin out more jazz for his fans. If he needs my advice, there is slew of old songs that fall in his kind of jazz and rhythm - 'I go to pieces' - Avearage White Band, 'I wish' - Stevie Wonder, 'Masterpiece; - Temptations, 'Something' - Beatles and on and on and on.

Gregg Alexander of The New Radicals - now he is producing music.