While the vines may feel special to their growerslike children!to you and me? SW: But you know who was on that shelf? ', 'Today during Ryan's Hope I saw the cutest commercial. But back in 1986, going viral was not yet a thing. SW: Between 1986 and 1992, the Dancing Raisins raked in more than 7 million dollars in licensing fees. And on top of everything else, he says there's one subject of conversation that just won't drop. And because they were big companies, not headquartered in the Fresno circle, they were not at the table, and participating in all of this back-and-forth. Oh, that's sweet. Their cover of Marvin Gaye's &, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Don't you know that I heard it through the grapevine. And then it clicked on me that it was like, 'oh, this is a real song, like not a California Raisins song.'. Deathly silence filled the Board room for what was probably only another thirty seconds, but seemed much longer. But the Raisinss influence went beyond just TV and music and began to invade all levels of pop culture. CH: From Business Insider. But I think we're heading in a positive direction now. Like, who was allowed to borrow the actual dancing raisins costume CALRAB had? "We decided that we wanted the raisins to be cool and a bit intimidating," Werner said. 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. HO: Well there's there's definitely 12:02 some discussion about that I mean in its infancy right now. Like, when Ray Charles had starred in his ad, he agreed to do a cross-country public relations tour, promoting the health and goodness of California raisins. It just knows that it needs water, it needs to be pruned, needs to be fertilized, it needs to be babied. WERNER: Uh yeah, it was probably a little bit of a shock, I guess. And since there wasn't a "Dancing Raisin" brand in the store, small packers worried Sunmaid was getting all the business. Phrases Similar to Heard it Through the Grapevine The briefthe goal of the campaignwas to come up with a commercial that would make customers see raisins differently. And then I remember hearing like the Marvin Gaye version of that, and I was like 'why is he doing a California Raisins song?' 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. He wasn't worried about making the most of this one shot and impressing his boss. His crime: growing raisins and then deciding to sell . California Raisins T-shirt ~ I Heard It Through The Grapevine ~ Claymation 80s. Leave a message at (646) 768-4777, or email us at btyb@insider.com. 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. And if you ever saw him. SW: But even as the dancing raisins scored these victories, back in Fresno, things were heating up. Between 12th and 14th Streets 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. If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. Oh! It seems like everyone in Motown heard about this song "through the grapevine" before it was finally recorded. 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. Seth Werner, the young copywriter newly in charge of the California Raisins account, had a concept. You're making us put up $32.50 for generic advertising, and Sunmaid's getting the benefit of it. Note: Comment submission is temporarily unavailable while we make improvements to the site. Some people were saying they weren't getting a big enough slice of the Dancing Raisins pie. Not this time, however! Their cover of Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" peaked at #84 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1988. He says if it had just been up to him, he would not have ended CALRAB and therefore the Dancing Raisins. I heard it through the grapevine Not much longer would you be mine baby I know a man ain't supposed to cry But these tears I can't hold inside Losin' you would end my life you see 'Cause you mean that much to me You could have told me yourself That you loved some one else Instead I heard it through the grapevine Not much longer would you be mine Harry Overly became the new president of Sunmaid in 2017. I mean, you can imagine that! The community that created them, and the questions they left in their wake. 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. On the table below them. In 2010, claymation versions of the California Raisins were featured in the special Christmas episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, "A Very Sunny Christmas". CH: So where did this journey for you begin? He wrote to Foot Cone and Belding specifically requesting a VHS copy of the ad so he could watch it whenever he wanted to. Connect your Spotify account to your Last.fm account and scrobble everything you listen to, from any Spotify app on any device or platform. 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. If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. The California Raisins were a fictional R&B group created in the mid-1980s for a commercial produced by the California Raisin Advisory. eBay (UK) Limited acts as a credit broker not a lender. SW: His boss had him working mostly on trade adsstuff for industry publications not the kind of campaigns you or I would ever see in a commercial or on a billboard. Almost like you can hear the band warming up "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" in the distance. Oh I'm just about to lose my mind. But there was enough leadership to sway the ones that weren't smart enough to realize what a good program it was. BK: It actually got to the point where the Dancing Raisins had their own television show. 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.". Like, growing up, we had this little figurine in our doll house, and my parents dressed up as them one year for Halloween. Because, in Fresno, California Raisins has always meant something bigger than a couple of claymation figurines singing "I Heard It Through the Grapevine.". If you saw a commercial you liked, you couldn't look it up on YouTube and send a link to a friend. But were they a success for the raisin industry? I don't need to prove anything to anybody. The growers are the ones with the vines. SW: Then, you've got nature to think about. They used themselves to make them human. See terms. Director. 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. High-top sneakers, sunglasses, and endless swagger. 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. Sunmaid. I said, 'Ok, that's one piece of the marketing puzzle. Almost all the growers in the room were against it. In 1985, he was a copywriter at the ad agency Foote, Cone, and Belding. It's that simple. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. SW: Within a month of its release, the album went gold. Lead vocals in the group were sung by musician Buddy Miles. Their cover of Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" peaked at #84 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1988. SW: This process, as you can imagine, took a while. This is Brought to you by Brands you know, stories you don't. But that wasn't the story around town. The show would have animated raisins acting as rockstars, and the song, "I heard it through the grapevine," was the California Raisins number-one single. Thanks to everyone who left us voicemails and shared their memories of the California Raisins in our Facebook group. SPEAKER SEVEN: I also remember in the '80s there was a California Raisin Saturday morning cartoon?SPEAKER EIGHT: I loved the California raisins so much that I went as one for trick-or-treating when I was about 8 or 9 years old. And Seth Seth was dancing all by himself in front of the group, without socks on! SPEAKER FOUR: I loved those commercials as a kid, they were so cool. I know a man ain't supposed to cry. Little disagreements surfaced. (981) $9.95. He's written songs for bands like Earth, Wind and Fire, the Gap Band, and more recently, he's done covers with Kanye West. And now they are all I can think about!! 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? And the industry was coming out of a big slump at the time. Because the smaller packers still thought Sunmaid had an unfair advantage. Or 'if it's bad for Sunmaid, it's gotta be good for them. To access our initial disclosure document, please click, Get the item you ordered or your money back. And the US, by the way, is the second largest raisin producer in the entire world. There were California Raisins lunchboxes, then Hardee's started handing out plastic Raisins figurines with Cinnamon 'n' Raisin biscuits. And that might be part of why some raisin packers felt like this all boiled down to: "it's us versus Sunmaid.". Heard it, heard it! But how did a bunch of dried grapes, burdened with the reputationof being a mediocre, boring snack, become synonymous with swagger? California Raisins poster vintage 1987 Heard it Through The Grapevine. Is it that people remember it? Constitution Avenue, NW SPEAKER FIVE: They just made raisins and dried fruit in general seem really, really hip. Like the Archies before them, the imaginary band was a hit. SW: The raisin industry quickly followed up with more ads. Condition: Used. And they were hearing from those ingredient customers that they had an issue with the ads: BK: Some large customers felt they were paying for it. Washington, D.C. Email powered by MailChimp (Privacy Policy & Terms of Use), International Media Interoperability Framework. Are all I can think about! front of the marketing puzzle to your Last.fm account and scrobble everything listen. Would like to know how you can imagine, took a while in Motown Heard about this song & ;. 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