Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Shirley, Squirrely and Melvin: LIVE (2nd nomination)


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   delete. -- Cirt (talk) 01:43, 4 August 2010 (UTC)

Shirley, Squirrely and Melvin: LIVE
AfDs for this article: 
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This may be a long nomination, but I need to address everything that came up in the last AfD which closed as "no consensus" (inexplicably to me). Also, please excuse any implications that various virtual bands consisting of cartoon characters are actual recording artists in themselves.

This article about an album has been on Wikipedia for years, but ever since the very first edit, the article has claimed that the album was a collaboration between Shirley & Squirrely and The Chipmunks. For background, The Chipmunks are by far the most popular music group consisting of anthropomorphic rodents. The Nutty Squirrels were a similar kind of group, but with squirrels, and more jazz-oriented; due to a legal dispute, the Nutty Squirrels became known in the 1970s as Shirley & Squirrely. But in 1981, when this album Shirley, Squirrely and Melvin: LIVE was released -- and at all times since then -- the Chipmunks have been much better known than Shirley & Squirrely or the Nutty Squirrels.

The alleged collaboration, in this case, consisted of outtakes from the Chipmunks' 1980 and 1981 albums being combined with unfinished vocal tracks from the previous Shirley & Squirrely album. The problem is that no valid sources have been provided to establish that the Chipmunks were meant to be a collaborating artist on this album, that outtakes from the Chipmunks sessions were used on this album, or that Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. (then the vocalist for the Chipmunks) had anything to do with this album. And the lack of mention of the Chipmunks on the album cover (as seen in the article) suggests that the "collaboration" claim is overblown at best.

Taking the sources in order, we have the following:


 * 1) The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (1983 edition). I went to the library to look this up. The encyclopedia is organized by artist, and it devotes about half a page to the Chipmunks, but that entry does not refer to Shirley & Squirrely or this album. Nor do the Nutty Squirrels or Shirley & Squirrely have entries of their own. The article's claim that this book "explained its role in Chipmunk Punks aftermath and first revealed Ross Bagdasarian Jr. as the true identity behind the voice of Melvin Squirrel" is untrue.
 * 2) George Gimarc's Post Punk Diary: 1980-1982. This book has a paragraph about the Chipmunk Punk album (from which outtakes were supposedly used to create this album), but it doesn't mention this album or Shirley & Squirrely; you can see for yourself here. This article's claim that the book "revealed real names of participants of this album at conclusion of entry on Chipmunk Punk" is untrue.
 * 3) "Annoying Music, In Honor of the King". This is a segment from National Public Radio's Weekend Edition. The actual audio segment from the show does not mention Shirley & Squirrely or this album; however, the web site has a picture of the album cover and a bonus MP3 of Shirley & Squirrely's version of "Blue Suede Shoes." Admittedly, this does establish that not everything in this article is a lie.
 * 4) "Johnson Leaves Pickwick to Start Nashville." This is an article from Billboard magazine. The only paragraph that has any bearing on this article says, "Should Johnson acquire Excelsior, his label roster would include David Houston, Donna Hazard, Mundo Earwood, the Concrete Cowboy Band and the novelty act of Shirley, Squirrely and Melvin. Also now on Excelsior are 'a number of existing masters of significant value,' says Johnson, along with the label's platinum best-seller, 'Chipmunk Punk.'" This article does not mention the album under discussion here, nor does it make any connection between the two acts besides them being on the same record label.

Also, the article claims that one of the album tracks, "Love Lives On," "has since become a cult favorite on many Los Angeles-area R&B radio stations." It also claims (via a piped link) that The Ramones provided instrumentation for this album under the name "The Amazing Rodent Rhythm Machine." Both of these claims have had "citation needed" tags attached to them for almost a year, but no attempt has been made to source them. I also asked the editor who added the invalid references about the Gimarc reference specifically, but no answer was forthcoming.

Given that this article's notability seems to have been based since the very start on false claims, and last year when it came up for AfD, several mostly irrelevant sources were added which didn't back up those claims, I believe the best solution is to delete this article. If evidence of notability turns up later, the article can be re-created with accurate information. Metropolitan90 (talk) 04:38, 28 July 2010 (UTC)


 * Delete per WP:NALBUM.  elektrik SHOOS  05:20, 28 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Albums and songs-related deletion discussions.  -- • Gene93k (talk) 19:09, 28 July 2010 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.