SW: Kalem was voting on behalf of the packer he worked for. Year . AD THREE: Raisins from California. And even in the 1990s, Sunmaid was like the "Kleenex" of the raisin industry. A board member said, 'Seth, can you do it again?' Post's Raisin Bran cereal took advantage of the increasingly popular dried fruit and teamed up with the Raisins to help promote their boxed cereal, and fast food chain Hardees bought a license to produce the incredibly popular collectible Raisins figurines. Javascript is required to view shouts on this page. Needless to say, their band history borrowed heavily from the types of origin stories real bands tended to have. You're making us put up $32.50 for generic advertising, and Sunmaid's getting the benefit of it. ", In 2017, an episode of The Simpsons called "The Cad and the Hat" included a couch gag segment featuring the California Raisins being killed by Homer.[21]. [20], In 2016, the California Raisins made an appearance in the cartoon show American Dad. Free shipping for many products! SW: This is what raisin packing sounds like. I said, 'the only thing I would do, because at that time, you know, you had things like the Chipmunks and all these different things for kids,'. BK: It actually got to the point where the Dancing Raisins had their own television show. SW: The winning concept was a raisin with big eyes, a defined nose, and a wide mouthperfect for lip syncing. SW: I mean, how did you react when you found out about that?? et Cie, S.C.A. There it is. The briefthe goal of the campaignwas to come up with a commercial that would make customers see raisins differently. We apologize for the interruption. Hey Sarah. A new version of Last.fm is available, to keep everything running smoothly, please reload the site. SW: Michael Jackson sent Will Vinton a video with instructions for how he wanted the claymation to lookdown to the motions and facial expressions the backup raisins were making in the background of the ad. And if you don't have a consensus, it doesn't matter. CH: We're back. Is it that people remember it? We love hearing from you. Check mate. He wasn't worried about making the most of this one shot and impressing his boss. The raisin packers didn't reach this decision because anyone had anything against the ad, or because licensing fees had stopped rolling in, or even because raisin sales were down. 30 of those and you have a second of the commercial. CH: After the break, five million dollars DOES go a long way, the Dancing California Raisins conga line their way to record deals and awards, and they split the raisin industry right down the middle. It lost message. SW: All of those different factors combined add up to the final, and most important challenge for the raisin industry. MATTHEW MALCOLM: I mean you can't just leave any field barren here, because something's gonna grow. SW: Michael Brunsfeld was the commercial animation director at a company called Colossal Pictures, which had been contracted to do a mockup of the ad. Even if you weren't alive to see the advertisements, TV. The California Raisins are often accompanied by a soundtrack of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," originally popularized by singer Marvin Gaye. Sheet Music They have two big jobs. They were the California Raisins. Find top songs and albums by California Raisins including I Heard It Through the Grapevine, Santa Claus Is Coming to Town and more. Besides appearing in short commercials, The California Raisins shared their musical chops in television specials. [1] The California Raisins were popular in the mid-to-late 1980s through claymation TV commercials and animated specials, winning an Emmy Award and one nomination.[2][3]. But how did a bunch of dried grapes, burdened with the reputationof being a mediocre, boring snack, become synonymous with swagger? Sunmaid. And by the end of the night, all anyone could agree on was that one of the siblings was getting a bigger cut than everyone else. Because, in Fresno, California Raisins has always meant something bigger than a couple of claymation figurines singing "I Heard It Through the Grapevine.". And ultimately, when everyone failed to agree, the raisins took the fall. SPEAKER ONE: Like obviously, they're raisins, but it just didn't occur to me that like this was a tool to get you to eat like what you see in boxes of raisins. Claymation was an unproven conceptthis was probably the first time it had been used in a commercial. SW: Big ingredient customers could actually look up in state records how much money, per ton, raisin packers were paying CALRAB. Paul McCartney requested his own copy on VHS. The California Raisins were the product of an exacerbated ad team, a few broken rules, and the execution of a fascinating visual art form. DH: And it turns out, the dancing raisins were especially popular with moms! But there was enough leadership to sway the ones that weren't smart enough to realize what a good program it was. Those California Raisins weren't just in California anymore. It would go on to produce the Dancing Raisins ad. The 1980's TV commercials for California raisins have been called some of the best ads ever made. SPEAKER NINE: Definitely didn't make me any more of a fan of raisins. Seth Werner, the young copywriter newly in charge of the California Raisins account, had a concept. Almost all the growers in the room were against it. [4] To their surprise, the commercial became wildly popular, paving the way for several future commercials and opportunities through other media. Which wasn't true. Scrobbling is when Last.fm tracks the music you listen to and automatically adds it to your music profile. RAISINS: Oooh I heard it through the grapevine, raised in the California sunshine. And the answer is usually 'we don't know.. but probably not.' This is Brought to you by Brands you know, stories you don't. eBay (UK) Limited acts as a credit broker not a lender. Oh! 16:20 How do you distinguish your raisin bagel from my field to your field? And then we threw the baby out with the bathwater. [Ebm E Ab Eb Cm] Chords for California Raisins Heard it Through the Grapevine (Better Quality) with Key, BPM, and easy-to-follow letter notes in sheet. SW: Clyde E. Nef, who was CALRAB's manager at the time, wrote about Seth's performance and the board's reaction in his book, The Fruits of Their Labors. WERNER: Well, you know, we were at this point, we were like what else is new. In 1987, Vinton featured the Raisins singing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" in A Claymation Christmas Celebration, a Christmas TV special he produced that won an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program. Now, somebody just had to turn Seth Werner's concept into a real commercial. SW: Those people started calling CALRAB and the ad agency, asking when and where the ad would play again. I don't like raisins. MM: You know, when you pick up a box of raisins on the shelf, there's many families behind it, there's a story behind it, but just like families are, you fight like family, they see the best and worst of each other, but it all, as a family we have to work together if we want to get anything done, if we really want to move the industry forward in a positive direction. The lead singer is wailing, wearing shadesnaturally, since they were raised in the California sunshine. Was Marvin Gaye spinning in his grave? Right or wrong, It depends on wherever the votes are. The "Heard It Through the Grapevine" theme is fabulous. CH: A warship, the USS Pyro, even asked permission to sail with a California Dancing Raisins flag flying high above ahoy mateys! Lead vocals in the group were sung by musician Bu, The California Raisins were a fictional R&B group created in the mid-1980s for a commercial produced by the California Raisin Advisory. Like, growing up, we had this little figurine in our doll house, and my parents dressed up as them one year for Halloween. Who'd have ever thought that a beloved Motown classic would be brought back to life by a bunch of animated dried fruit? I Heard It Through the Grapevine features a clip the movie The Big Chill where a group of teenagers in a library who are listening to the song through headphones which leads them to dance . People loved the singing, dancing Claymation raisins so much that more commercials followed, andin a marketing scheme that was virtually unheard of at the timeThe California Raisins went on to release four albums, score a Billboard Hot 100 hit, and earn an Emmy nomination (and appear in an Emmy-winning show). SUNMAID AD: My girl talkin' bout my girl. If you require a personal response, please use ourContact page. Feb 14, 2023 A group of singing, dancing, anthropomorphized raisins launched a sensational career after singing the 1968 Marvin Gaye song, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," in a 1986 commercial for the California Raisin Advisory Board. SETH WERNER: It wasn't back then, and it still isn't now. AD SEVEN: I heard it through the grapevine! And so he says, 'Ok fine. KB: Whereas the packer is the middleman buying it from him, processing it, selling it, shipping it into trade and hoping to make a profit. Lyrics.com. 1 Mar. SW: Buddy Miles, who'd been the drummer for Band of Gypsies with Jimi Hendrix, flew to California to record the vocals in Ross's studio. And the US, by the way, is the second largest raisin producer in the entire world. He watched the original commercial spin off into more and more distant territory. But Michael Jackson, well he was not about that. I mean, really, most of us don't give raisins a whole lot of attention..they are just kind of everywhere: in our cereals, bagels, and, of course, kid's lunch boxes. Losin' you would end my life you see. in 1988. If you need to request an image for publication or other use, please visit Rights and Reproductions. Between 1987 and 1988, the fictional band released four albums, two of which went platinum. This special saw the Raisins hiring a new manager with the goal of making a comeback. Some people were saying they weren't getting a big enough slice of the Dancing Raisins pie. THE THROWBACK MACHINE: Going for the gold, but coming up blonde. And, I didn't know this, but nearly 100 percent of the raisins the U.S. produces come from within a 60 mile radius of the city. SW: In the end, the ad went to air. Right? And a lot people, including many of our listeners, still remember it really well. Unless you just happened to have a VCR set up and recording at the exact moment the ad aired WERNER: You had to wait and hopefully see it on TV again on some show you were watching and not know when that was coming, and because we didn't have a very big media budget, it wasn't on that often. AD TWO: We know raisins are natural, but kids just know what they like. Sign up for notifications from Insider! The community that created them, and the questions they left in their wake. And some of them played instruments, maybe?SPEAKER TWO: All dancing in the real world, but in their little clay situation.SPEAKER THREE: They were disproportionately raisinly huge. Casey Holford and John DeLore composed our theme. SW: The ad was a hit. SPEAKER FOUR: My mother thought they were great, and she collected the figurines. [8] While cel animated by Murakami-Wolf-Swenson, it maintained Will Vinton's creative direction. SW: Kalem Barserian, raisin industry veteran, again. In fact, the industry was on an upswing. And maybe some people are pessimistic about it, I don't know, maybe people are tired of just the lack of unity. Finance is provided by PayPal Credit (a trading name of PayPal (Europe) S. r.l. He was so into it that he personally got in touch with Will Vinton, the claymation animator, and asked to be included in his own commercial. KB: I'll never forget, he was a handsome guy, had white shoes on, no socks, had an earring in this ear, he had the ghetto blaster up on his shoulders, and he turns it on and it's "Heard It Through the Grapevine.". SPEAKER TEN: We had the Christmas special on videotape, we probably watched it like three or four times a December, between when I was like 4 and 8. SPEAKER FOUR: I loved those commercials as a kid, they were so cool. More than 2 million people bought their albums and listened to the Raisins covering songs including "Lean on Me" and "You Cant Hurry Love." WERNER: I basically had to put white gloves on and stand in front of them all and dance to show the campaign KB: But then he's going through these storyboards and showing how it would look, well how is a bib overall grower going to understand what the hell this guy is saying? Top editors give you the stories you want delivered right to your inbox each weekday. High-top sneakers, sunglasses, and endless swagger. SW: I was not even alive when most of those ads aired, and I had the same experience. [16], In 2002, the Food Network program Unwrapped featured a segment on The California Raisins featuring interviews with Will Vinton, David Altschul, and Mark Gustafson of Vinton Studios. Just to make the ad would cost $300,000. Then in 1989, a 13-episode Saturday Morning Cartoon show calledThe California Raisin Show aired. Matthew has observed his fair share of contentious industry meetings. The article ranked The California Raisins' premiere advertisement, "Lunchbox", at #15 with comments by ad agency executive Claude Jacques and described the Raisins as "The coolest wrinkled musicians this side of the Stones. He says if it had just been up to him, he would not have ended CALRAB and therefore the Dancing Raisins. SW: But by 1994, the packers had reached a consensus. In the early 1990s, Capcom produced a video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) titled The California Raisins: The Grape Escape,[12] in which the player controlled a California Raisin through five side-scrolling levels battling various evil fruit and vegetable characters that have stolen the Raisins' music. Musicians such as Ray Charles and Michael Jackson even got in on the raisin action, singing their own versions of "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" for later commercials. Sales of raisins themselves increased 20 percent after the first commercial. And their arms were like small, and they had like little legs. He wrote to Foot Cone and Belding specifically requesting a VHS copy of the ad so he could watch it whenever he wanted to. Sunmaid. Their cover of Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" peaked at #84 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1988. Because that's a whole market supply and demand on both the national and international basis. To make sense of that storyto understand where the dancing raisins came from, and how they disappearedeveryone told me I needed to talk to this guy. Condition: Used. KB: We're not getting our fair share of it. 2016 ScienceAGoGo. The Raisins released numerous studio albums in the 1980s, starred in a cartoon series, and were nominated for an Emmy for their 1988 "Meet the Raisins" mockumentary. And I told him, all of this sounds absolutely exhausting: KB: I'm still here! First of all, you've got that family dynamic. Washington, D.C. 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A personal response, please visit Rights and Reproductions raisin bagel from my field to your music profile with... The briefthe goal of the raisin industry veteran, again all, you 've got that family dynamic response! Enough slice of the campaignwas to come up with a commercial that would make customers see Raisins differently?! Collected the figurines this one shot and impressing his boss those and you have second... Lip syncing listeners, still remember it really well some of the ads... The campaignwas to come up with a commercial him, he would not have ended CALRAB and questions! Had to turn seth Werner: it actually got to the final, Sunmaid. Everything running smoothly, please use ourContact page could actually look up in records... Alive to see the advertisements, TV not even alive when most of this sounds absolutely:... Music you listen to and automatically adds it to your music profile 20 ], in,! 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