I was in the room when it got killed! And apparently, making a clay "King of Pop" was a whole 'nother can of worms. Constitution Avenue, NW Heard it! But I also take the approach of, that was 30 years ago so I think it's time that we look forward because the industry is in a very dramatic, very drastically different place than it was back then. And they had good reasons to be! They go on for pages and pages, carefully typed out on letterhead and hand-written in beautiful cursive. They have two big jobs. Michael Jackson asked to be featured in a sequel. It was merely entertaining." And then on top of that, this article also made mention of a raisin mafia, along with allegations of death threats!? But, that's not where this story ends. But how did a bunch of dried grapes, burdened with the reputationof being a mediocre, boring snack, become synonymous with swagger? The California Raisins II is a 1990 claymation television special directed by Will Vinton, featuring the advertising characters The California Raisins. The California Dancing Raisins ad has been called one of the best of all time. With lead vocals by former Jimi Hendrix and Electric Flag drummer Buddy Miles, the Raisins put out two platinum albums, and spun out a Michael Jackson soundalike ad as well as a spot voiced by the real Ray Charles. I treat my vines as if they were my children. But in 1994, the. MICHAEL BRUNSFELD: The first step in this was we need somebody to create some raisins that are going to dance around. SPEAKER TWELVE: And it was all claymation, and they'd sing Christmas carols and stuff there were I think other characters and things in it as well. If no one liked it, the raisin industry could not get that money back. 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). Between 12th and 14th Streets And I told him, all of this sounds absolutely exhausting: KB: I'm still here! [6] Javascript is required to view shouts on this page. CH: But while the ad made the dancing California raisins cool did it do anything for actual California raisins? Unknown; no label specified. KB: How can anybody sit on a board who spends their whole day on a tractor that knows everything about what needs to be done for his vines, and he's gonna come in and know what an advertising executive knows? SW: Lots of details would have to be worked out first. Some years later, Noel Gallagher stands on a stage strumming his guitar while . Price: 16.01. 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. The California Raisins are a fictional rhythm and blues musical group comprised of anthropomorphized raisins. Sunmaid. Back in 1987, the president of Priority Records got in touch with Ross, and he asked him to produce an album of Motown hits, sung by the California Raisins. On November 4, 1988, CBS aired a primetime television special called Meet the Raisins! ', SW: Barry Kriebel was president of Sunmaid at the time. For the last 10 years, he's violated the law and gone against the Raisin Administrative Committee. SW: I was not even alive when most of those ads aired, and I had the same experience. Werner and his copywriting partner, Dexter Fedor, knew that they needed to make the dried fruit less of an afterthoughtthe raisins needed personality. If there's anything we can do for you, please give me a call'. Michael Jackson asked to be featured in a sequel. SW: That's Alvin and the Chipmunks, for those of you aren't fans. Which wasn't true. The California Raisins were a fictional R&B group created in the mid-1980s for a commercial produced by the California Raisin Advisory. If you saw a commercial you liked, you couldn't look it up on YouTube and send a link to a friend. CH: So where did this journey for you begin? The problem, FCB's account supervisor said at the time, was that though customers understood the health benefits of raisins, they had emotional connections with various vice products, like cigarettes because of the long-running "Marlboro Man" ads, or beer based on the popular "Miller Time" ads. While the vines may feel special to their growerslike children!to you and me? Because, in Fresno, California Raisins has always meant something bigger than a couple of claymation figurines singing "I Heard It Through the Grapevine.". SARAH WYMAN: Charlie, I have to start with a confession. BK: No, what we got was him for free, but he wasn't gonna do anything. All Rights Reserved. There is also some good news though! SW: Within a month of its release, the album went gold. Several California Raisins music albums were also released, featuring classic Motown and rock standards. So they'd pose them, they'd take a picture of that, then they'd re-pose them slightly in a slightly different pose, take a picture of that. CH: The dancing raisins were so popular, they took on a life of their own outside of the ad. They were tired of paying into a shared piggybank for the greater good. Thanks to everyone who left us voicemails and shared their memories of the California Raisins in our Facebook group. And as that rift widened, the raisins fell right through it. Characters Steve and Roger go into a mall representing 1980s culture where they meet the Raisins who proclaim that they are "cursed to live forever. Raisins, dressed up in white gloves and sunglasses, dancing to Marvin Gaye's "I heard it through the grapevine." Music is from Audio Network. Lead vocals in the group were sung by musician Buddy Miles. Get instant explanation for any lyrics that hits you anywhere on the web! Sarah tells us what happened next SW: In 1994, a group of raisin packers voted to shut down CALRAB. SW: So are the California Raisins coming back, do you thinkthe Dancing California Raisins? SW: Yeah, that did not go over well within the industry. TikTok video from Shug (@sonyastanford2). Our collection database is a work in progress. Because the smaller packers still thought Sunmaid had an unfair advantage. KB: We're not getting our fair share of it. A new version of Last.fm is available, to keep everything running smoothly, please reload the site. These albums were included in the Smithsonian collection and were illustrated and art-directed by Helane Freeman, who later became famous for her work on Hannah Montana and The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, among other Disney programs. And now they are all I can think about!! And then I remember hearing like the Marvin Gaye version of that, and I was like 'why is he doing a California Raisins song?' AD SEVEN: I heard it through the grapevine! Some user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. Most of the time when we buy raisins, we have no idea where they came from. If you require a personal response, please use ourContact page. [9] Blackthorne Publishing also released a six-issue comic book series entitled The California Raisins 3-D which included 3D glasses; these would later be re-released in the Ultimate Collection trade paperback. November 12, 1986 SW: You guys, it's from Paul McCartney's manager. Photo: A Claymation Christmas Celebration / CBS The Raisins Were Featured In Will Vinton's 'Claymation Christmas Celebration' On CBS In 1987 KB: Couldn't find it! RAISINS SHOW: You might have heard about us through the old grapevine. Sunmaid. Sheet Music It had sold more than 500,000 copies. RAISINS CHRISTMAS: Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer It's those sensational California Raisins in the Emmy-winning Claymation Christmas celebration, next! If you have a question relating to the museum's collections, please first check our Collections FAQ. So Fresno is like Eden for raisins. The commercials were produced by Vinton Studios using their claymation technique, with character designs by Michael Brunsfeld. Entdecke The California Raisi - I Heard It Through The Grapevine - gebrauchtes Vinyl - E8100A in groer Auswahl Vergleichen Angebote und Preise Online kaufen bei eBay Kostenlose Lieferung fr viele Artikel! SPEAKER ELEVEN: We watched it in art class when I was in elementary school. The game was completed and several video game critics reviewed it, but it was never released on the open market. WERNER: 'Our thanks again on behalf of Paul McCartney. CH: A warship, the USS Pyro, even asked permission to sail with a California Dancing Raisins flag flying high above ahoy mateys! KB: Heard it through the grapevine! Just to make the ad would cost $300,000. The success of the dancing raisins exposed fractures in the industry which had been forming just under the surface for decades. Would everyone contribute to the cost of an ad campaign? Oh I heard it through the grapevine. But the Raisinss influence went beyond just TV and music and began to invade all levels of pop culture. What about Michael Jackson and what he was contributing? SW: The ad agency hired a guy named Will Vinton and his team to take the animated mockup of the ad and turn it into clay animationor, claymation. How could this ad that on its surface seems like an unmitigated success also have caused all these other problems? On the table below them. Watch the video for I Heard It Through the Grapevine from California Raisins's Sing The Hit Songs for free, and see the artwork, lyrics and similar artists. Still one thing nearly everyone does agree on is the mass appeal of the dancing raisins. KB: Once we started the Dancing Raisins, people were going to the store asking for Dancing Raisin raisins, and there weren't any! But were they a success for the raisin industry? SW: One of the people who saw that ad was Michael Jackson. Leave a message at (646) 768-4777, or email us at btyb@insider.com. This is Brought to you by Brands you know, stories you don't. Kalem Barserian will tell you the ad made the raisin industry money, and he will pull out a calculator to prove it. The plot of the game involved Tiny Goodbite having to rescue his friends who have been kidnapped and held in a cereal factory. And even in the 1990s, Sunmaid was like the "Kleenex" of the raisin industry. He writes: "The thirty seconds of this commercial seemed like an eternity. So, give them raisins! 16:20 How do you distinguish your raisin bagel from my field to your field? ', 'Today during Ryan's Hope I saw the cutest commercial. More than 2 million people bought their albums and listened to the Raisins covering songs including "Lean on Me" and "You Cant Hurry Love." He just wanted to make an ad he thought was cool. I mean, you can imagine that! SW: That is exactly what I wanted to find out. Box Office Software produced a different, unrelated California Raisins computer game in 1988 for the Apple II, Commodore 64, and PC compatibles. Barrett Strong was the singer. He's now on his second round of leading the Raisin Bargaining Association. Oh I'm just about to lose my mind. 2023 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved. [10] Different collections were produced in 1987, 1988, 1991, and finally in 2001 (the latter adding Carl's Jr. due to their late '90s acquisition of Hardee's) for their new stylization. They needed to be the life of the snack bar. HARRY OVERLY: I know for a fact that there is animosity that still exists within the industry of what happened back then. SW: Did it feel at any point while you were working on this album like you were making an ad for raisins? I will only talk to you, Will.'. Almost all the packers resented Sunmaid, but not all for the same reasons. Washington, D.C. Email powered by MailChimp (Privacy Policy & Terms of Use), African American History Curatorial Collective. Audiences quickly connected with the Raisins authentic R&B sound, and The California Raisins version of "Grapevine" even reached No. SW: Then, you've got nature to think about. He's a reporter covering raisins and grapes for one of the trade magazines his family publishes. Eligibility determined at checkout. Sign up for notifications from Insider! 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. Was the Dancing Raisins ad a success? SW: Yeah, I'm still looking for the pictures. This was not a formula. But actually to me, one of the most interesting parts of that story was this little section on the California Dancing Raisins ads from the '80s. We're not prunes or dates SW: And the raisins weren't close to being done yet. BK: It actually got to the point where the Dancing Raisins had their own television show. How is that better than Ray Charles?'. You can have a talking head, you can have a situation' you know, there were like formulas on how to do this. Perhaps the most memorable piece of California Raisins merchandise, however, came in the form of small, non-poseable California Raisins figures. RV: I think within 4-5 months it was platinum! The 1980's TV commercials for California raisins have been called some of the best ads ever made. And in 1998wait for it, another acronymthe CRMBCalifornia Raisin Marketing Boardtook over as the new hype machine for California Raisins. Today, it would go viral. Dancing Raisins Heard It Through the Grapevine. The dancing raisins got caught in the crossfire of a heated debate within the industry. MM: We have to work together because we're competing against great forces worldwide for raisin production. Or 'if it's bad for Sunmaid, it's gotta be good for them. A series of weather-related disasters during the '70s had thrown the price of raisins completely out of whack. The community that created them, and the questions they left in their wake. Harry Overly became the new president of Sunmaid in 2017. That could mean that while the ad was running, more customers were buying store-brand raisins instead of Sunmaid raisins and store brand raisins were supplied by those other California raisin packers. SW: Those people started calling CALRAB and the ad agency, asking when and where the ad would play again. And because Sunmaid was so much biggerthe Kleenex of raisins!they suspected that brand was getting a bigger share of the sales that had trickled down from the ad. Earlier this year, the CRMBwhich did not respond to my request for commenthired a brand new Vice President of Marketing. Find top songs and albums by California Raisins including I Heard It Through the Grapevine, Santa Claus Is Coming to Town and more. A short time after that, he sat in a studio and sang the words into a microphone while strumming his guitar along with a few friends. The California Raisins are often accompanied by a soundtrack of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," originally popularized by singer Marvin Gaye. You don't, right? And call them nature's candy. Lyrics.com. Will Vinton. 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. Our editor is Micaela Blei. He said: WERNER: He would not approve the nose that I put on the raisin, no matter what I did, he wouldn't approve of it! Raised in the California sunshine WERNER: He volunteered and said 'I won't be paid, I just want to be a raisin, I have one thing I need to ask though, I will not talk to anybody from the advertising agency, and I will not talk to any clients. SW: Seth has a whole scrapbook of these letters. Whod have ever thought that a beloved Motown classic would be brought back to life by a bunch of animated dried fruit? Demand was down. STANDS4 LLC, 2023. onefunplace. WERNER: They'd make these little clay models of the raisins, and I remember sitting there with one of the animators, and he'd make an expression in a mirror, and then he'd make that expression on the face of the raisin. And if the California raisin family wanted to avert economic disaster, it needed to band together and find a way to sell more raisins. But there's one letter that really stands out: WERNER: Okay, this is from the Fitzgerald-Hartley Company. Note: This transcript may contain errors. How are you gonna do something with California Raisins,' I said 'ahhh, I'll probably do something stupid like have some raisins dancing to I heard it through the Grapevine' and then I thought 'oh, maybe that's not so stupid!'. And then we threw the baby out with the bathwater. Scientists mull polarized light detection from alien life-forms, Nano-mechanical sensors wired using photonics, E. coli outbreak leads to massive flour recall, First human CRISPR trial passes safety and ethics review, Cephalopods: Natures camouflaging masters, Scientists detect gravitational waves for the second time, Colorful secrets of chemical elements with slow motion flames. There were California Raisins lunchboxes, then Hardee's started handing out plastic Raisins figurines with Cinnamon 'n' Raisin biscuits. [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. CALRAB, the organization who made the campaign, was also closed on July 31, 1994, due to disagreements with raisin producers over the fairness of required payments to the organization. Free shipping for many products! 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,'. Label. HO: Well there's there's definitely 12:02 some discussion about that I mean in its infancy right now. BARRY KRIEBEL: Well that's the problem with the advertising! African American History Curatorial Collective. They were all over the country, on mugs and lunchboxes and tee shirts. SPEAKER THREE: They sang we three kings with also these camels that were all claymation. It's a tax. SW: So a couple of months ago, I read this New York Times article that sort of started it all for me. Start the wiki. My girl!BK: Yeeeeah the marketing guys at Del Monte filed a complaint with the Department of Food and Agriculture over it. And so, with a $7.5 million campaign on the line, Werner hit play and began dancing across the room to the old Motown hit "I Heard it Through the Grapevine.". And so he says, 'Ok fine. Almost like you can hear the band warming up "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" in the distance. Like, growing up, we had this little figurine in our doll house, and my parents dressed up as them one year for Halloween. Seth Werner and CALRABthe agency responsible for hyping up California raisinsthey had delivered a hit. Condition: Used. 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. As for the music, the commercial featured Buddy Miles, a Carlos Santana collaborator and drummer for Jimi Hendrix, singing "I Heard It Through The Grapevine"picked because of the obvious connection between grapes and raisins, but also because the song had seen a resurgence after the Marvin Gaye version had been used for the opening scene of the 1983 hit movie The Big Chill. 80s classic toys.
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