How did the Munchkin voices get so high?
Vocal arranger Ken Darby used the then-unusual technique of speeding up the recordings — actually, slowing the tape down during recording and playing it back at normal speed — to get the high pitched voices for the Munchkins. Most of the actors playing Munchkins were not singers, and some had thick accents, so they did not perform their own singing or dialogue. Instead, Darby hired other singers, and the Munchkin actors would lip synch to the prerecorded words. A similar technique was used for the Winkies, the Witch’s guards, to lower their voices for their chant, and for the reprise of “Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead” after the Wicked Witch of the West is melted, which was eventually left out of the finished film. This time, however, the tape was speeded up during recording, making the voices lower when played back at normal speed.
