Constitution Avenue, NW First of all, you've got that family dynamic. Really?'. SW: So a couple of months ago, I read this New York Times article that sort of started it all for me. Their cover of Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" peaked at #84 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1988. Not much longer would you be mine baby. BK: No, what we got was him for free, but he wasn't gonna do anything. In The Simpsons episode "'Tis the Fifteenth Season", The California Raisins were spoofed as The California Prunes, on a special entitled Christmas with the California Prunes. SW: Before long, a claymation Ray Charles joined the bunch. What's the whole campaign? But the Raisinss influence went beyond just TV and music and began to invade all levels of pop culture. I treat my vines as if they were my children. Done. SW: This is what raisin packing sounds like. They even earned an Emmy nomination! The California Raisins were a fictional R&B group created in the mid-1980s for a commercial produced by the California Raisin Advisory. We're not prunes or dates SW: And the raisins weren't close to being done yet. Like the whole body was just a head, with arms and legs waving about. The game was completed and several video game critics reviewed it, but it was never released on the open market. Some user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. I don't care how small or whatever, but something that's not part of what you're doing.'. [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. AD ONE: Lay some happiness on me, give me raisins and I'll be. No, not really. And most of the people spending millions of dollars don't want to know there are two guys sitting in a back room trying to make each other laugh and come up with this stuff, but that is what we did. Losin' you would end my life you see. WERNER: 'Dear NBC, After weeks of trying to find out who to congratulate on a recent national ad, I came up with nothing. And in 1998wait for it, another acronymthe CRMBCalifornia Raisin Marketing Boardtook over as the new hype machine for California Raisins. ", 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]. Lyrics.com. We may update this record based on further research and review. SW: And that tax is paying for a campaign that's not even advertising your product! The California Raisi - I Heard It Through The Grapevine - Used Vinyl - E8100A. I voted to kill it too. The California Raisins were a fictional rhythm and blues animated musical group as well as advertising and merchandising characters composed of anthropomorphized raisins. This was not a formula. And the California raisin industry is, after all, a big family. By clicking Sign up, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider You got 100,000 tons. The figures were kept in a box for several years and headed for the trash before being obtained by Webster Colcord, a former employee of Vinton. SW: Remember, these were Fresno guys, not big city ad men. Somewhere, some afternoon, Noel Gallagher sat down with a guitar and did a little strumming and made up a few words to go with it. And the band wasn't playing heavy metal or rock 'n' roll. WERNER: Our whole objective was to make them cool. Will Vinton told Seth the hardest part was getting his nose right. (laughs). RV: And I set it up in the studio exactly how like an old Motown session would be. TikTok video from Shug (@sonyastanford2). The musical mockumentary was again created by Vinton Studios, and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. Lots of brands tested the limits of this rule, including Sunmaid: BK: I got permission from the manager to create a claymation ad where I had the Dancing Raisins singing to the Sunmaid girl. Hey Sarah. Michael Jackson asked to be featured in a sequel. Sunmaid. Dancing Raisins Heard It Through the Grapevine. But there was enough leadership to sway the ones that weren't smart enough to realize what a good program it was. Oh, that's sweet. Deathly silence filled the Board room for what was probably only another thirty seconds, but seemed much longer. Music is from Audio Network. Many of the items created for the campaign have become part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution. More than 2 million people bought their albums and listened to the Raisins covering songs including "Lean on Me" and "You Cant Hurry Love." If you have any issues please contact me before leaving negative response I will always do my best make it right! 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. SW: The California raisin industry is complicated. It turns out the raisin industry is actually a very contentious industry there's this long history of lawsuits going back and forth between different members. SW: I was not even alive when most of those ads aired, and I had the same experience. In 1985, both halves of the industry were funding CALRAB. Because animators arranged each shot by hand, giving each raisin its own distinct personality (including individualized facial expressions and colorful sunglasses), the commercial took more than a month to shoot. Javascript is required to view shouts on this page. The growers are the ones with the vines. SW: Unity has been a longstanding challenge for the raisin industry. And since they were already touring the country, at least on TV screens, there was only one logical next step. To access our initial disclosure document, please click, Get the item you ordered or your money back. Sarah Wyman is our showrunner. Please take time to look at pictures I try and show condition clear as possible. And if you ever saw him. SW: But even as the dancing raisins scored these victories, back in Fresno, things were heating up. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for CALIFORNIA RAISINS: i heard it through the grapevine PRIORITY 7" Single 45 RPM at the best online prices at eBay! 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. They needed to be the life of the snack bar. MICHAEL JACKSON: And Will, keep these guys still until they do the heard it! If you would like to know how we handle complaints, please click, . HARRY OVERLY: I know for a fact that there is animosity that still exists within the industry of what happened back then. But an even bigger faction of raisin packers did not have their own name-brands. Play with guitar, piano, ukulele, or any instrument you choose. Leave a message at (646) 768-4777, or email us at btyb@insider.com. The band broke up. Possibly, but in their own sweet, silly way, these spots conveyed a sense of mindless fun and gave the humble raisin its moment in the sun. AD SIX: Oh, I heard it through the grapevine! SPEAKER THREE: The one song I remember them doing all the time was "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" To the point where I was a kid and I hadn't, I don't think it really clicked to me that that was like a real song. ', SW: Barry Kriebel was president of Sunmaid at the time. Some had small brands that competed with Sunmaid. Required fields are marked *. Almost across the board, everyone I spoke to had good things to say about the ad itself. Qualifying purchases could enjoy 0% interest if paid in full in 4 months on purchases of 99+. AD FIVE: Honey, are you playing with your food again? And if the California raisin family wanted to avert economic disaster, it needed to band together and find a way to sell more raisins. And that takes unity. Concept illustrations of the Raisins were also featured as interviewees discussed the characters' creation.[17]. Several California Raisins music albums were also released, featuring classic Motown and rock standards. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. SPEAKER THREE: They sang we three kings with also these camels that were all claymation. They filed a petition, and that's it! KB: [counts] 350 versus 244. The California Raisins merchandising snowballed into 300 different products, including clothing, bed sheets, Halloween costumes, car accessories, lunch boxes, and even toilet paper. AD SEVEN: I heard it through the grapevine! [4] To their surprise, the commercial became wildly popular, paving the way for several future commercials and opportunities through other media. 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. Web. 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. But that little piece of fruit is anything but dry and boring. KB: Grape and raisin grower. 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. SW: All of those different factors combined add up to the final, and most important challenge for the raisin industry. Jun 1, 2013 - Explore The Goodwill Geek's board "Heard it Through the Grapevine.", followed by 362 people on Pinterest. It was merely entertaining." Get instant explanation for any lyrics that hits you anywhere on the web! Sunmaid had always been the golden child, and now, they were making off with the family fortune. But he told me something else too, something he says a lot of reporters like mewho fly into Fresno from the big city to cover the dramaoften miss: MM: We're all families here and so, everybody's really close, everybody knows each other, I mean, a lot of them are related to each other, they marry in, and so they're very tight SW: And that big family, with lots of opinions, is where some of that drama comes from. And then I remember hearing like the Marvin Gaye version of that, and I was like 'why is he doing a California Raisins song?' [14][additional citation(s) needed], On March 28, 1997 Entertainment Weekly published "The 50 Best Commercials of All Time" as its cover story. The plot of the game involved Tiny Goodbite having to rescue his friends who have been kidnapped and held in a cereal factory. Perhaps the most memorable piece of California Raisins merchandise, however, came in the form of small, non-poseable California Raisins figures. Sales of raisins themselves increased 20 percent after the first commercial. And though the process is time-consuming and expensive, Werner's performance managed to win them over. [6] We love hearing from you. Our collection database is a work in progress. Note: Comment submission is temporarily unavailable while we make improvements to the site. BK: There's always been a 'If it's good for Sunmaid, it's gotta be bad for them.' Or, as they saw it, for Sunmaid's good. Characters composed of anthropomorphized Raisins 100,000 tons when most of those ads aired, most... 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