In 2006 / 2007 I was in Japan performing with Sheena Easton. As I spoke to my wife Rebecca on one of our daily talks, she let me know that I had been called to do a commercial with 'Groove Addicts' a company that I have worked quite a bit with over the years. This company does 'radio station id's', commercials, TV Shows and Filma.
The commercial was scheduled on the day that I would be arriving back in the United States, which meant I was going to be pretty tired, jet-lagged, but I agreed to do it.
This was the commercial with Chuck Norris which you may have seen. This is where a couple of guys are on a website with Chuck Norris face on an ostrich. One of the guys says "we're up to a million hits, sweet"...Then the doorbell rings they ask who is it and the answer is "Chuck Norris", then the guys say "yeah right". They look over the balcony and find out that it is Chuck Norris and then they begin to run.
The rest of the commercial is the 2 guys running away from Chuck in various scenarios but holding on to their Mountain Dew. The commercial ends with Chuck catching them, snapping their picture and taking away their Mountain Dew. Then he sets up a website where he's now kicking their butts. The website is called "Payback".
The music playing in the background was similar to the Shaft theme from old and the singers were singing "Chuck". That was Alex Brown, Carmen Carter and myself. As tired as I was I was happy that the music wasn't something that was really involved. Sometimes you're so tired you're punch drunk, and I think that's how I was feeling that day just arriving from overseas.
I have to admit though that it was nice to come back from Japan and to do a commercial because at the time I hadn't sang on a commercial in quite some time, but at least I got to 'do the dew' for that particular commercial.
In the mid 80s I started singing on TV commercials. I've talked about a few of them on my BLOG, like the Peter Pan Peanut Butter commercial, the California Raisin's Commercial and others.
My first National Commercial was actually for Coast Soap. A lot of you might remember that soap. Edie Leighman, who I had toured with for Quincy Jones in 1982 and had worked together on a lot of projects called me for this session. I was singing background with a group of others.
It was a 30 second spot and it was about soap. But what I had come to realize was that the commercials were paying the biggest residuals and to sing on a commercial that was nationwide was a big deal. So I was happy to be a part.
It was great, you go down to the studio to sing for about an hour for a 30-second commercial and the commercial runs for about a 1/2 year or so and you continue to get paid. We all enjoyed the commercials back in the 80s and 90s before the SCREEN ACTORS GUILD STRIKE of 2000 also known as S.A.G. That strike changed the industry and commercials were never the same.
Even still it was great to be part of one of the major brands back in the day. I'm not sure if anyone even uses this soap anymore. It used to be my favorite, but we've since SWITCHED - No pun intended!
If you were around in the mid-80s, I'm sure you remember 'The California Raisins'. The California Raisins experienced high popularity in the mid-to-late 1980s principally through claymation TV commercials and animated specials, winning an Emmy Award and one nomination.
The concept was originally created for a 1986 commercial on behalf of the California Raisin Advisory Board. Well I had the privilege to be a California Raisin for one of their campaigns. It was pretty interesting.
A commercial firm that I had worked with up in the Bay Area called me to do a California Raisin commercial but this was the scenario. The firm had recorded a demo commercial of the California Raisin song, Heard It Through The Grapevine, with another singer up in the San Francisco area. I never got to know who the other singer was. The advertising agency loved the song at first and then they shot the claymation around the commercial demo. But here was the problem, after they finished shooting the claymation, they weren't happy with the singer's voice. They felt that it was a little too harsh once they saw it up against the film.
When I got the call the firm felt that I would be the perfect replacement, but I needed to sing the song pretty much like the other singer because it had to match the movement of the claymation. I was up for the challenge, even though I like to have my own originality on a song whenever I sing.
I was sent the original demo to listen to and then I was flown up to San Francisco. The Firm that was doing the commercial as well as the advertising agency was there. I matched the rhythm and the melody exactly like the other singer, the agency and the firm was pleased and was about to call it a wrap, but I wasn't. I like to have my own originality I asked that since they have that particular recording could I do another take since I now know the exact rhythm that's needed, etc and put a different spin on it. I told them that it wouldn't hurt anything especially since they were already satisfied with what they had. The producer and I had worked together so he knew what I was capable of and so I was allowed to do another take.
I did my take, matched the rhythm exactly but changed the melody to make it more exciting and to put my signature on this commercial as it were. The firm, and the Ad Agency were very pleased. They said, 'this turned out a lot better than what they expected', especially since they were pleased with the other take. Why did I choose to do that?
Sometimes singers have stories and I didn't want the singer who sang the original demo commercial to be going around telling others that I sang this song the same way that he did, etc, etc. I knew that I needed to change it up enough so that story wouldn't even exist. Everyone was pleased and that particular commercial ran for quite some time.
A friend of mine found the commercial on YouTube, after I published this BLOG, so I was grateful and decided to add it as an update. Enjoy!
For a moment in time I had the privilege to be the lead singer as one of "The California Raisins"
As I mentioned from time to time I'm going to take a commercial break. Over the years I've sung on quite a few commercials and had some great sessions and so I'll share some of the stories from time to time.
Back in the early 90s Jim Gilstrap, Mark Campbell, Phil Perry, and myself sang on a series of Sizzler commercials. The idea musically was to have some guys do a 'do wop' street vibe. The campaign was a huge success. The commercials would show a steak sizzling and then you would hear, "I like the sound of a sweet juicy steak, Sizzler...sounds good". There were other commercials showing different food items as well. This was all sung a capella. Mark Viegha of LANY music put together the music for this brilliant campaign. Mark Viegha was also the one responsible for the 'Peter Pan Peanut Butter' campaign that I spoke of in this BLOG on April 17, 2011.
Since Sizzler was a franchise they would have their corporate events in various places around the United States. Well once Mark, Jim, Phil and I were invited to one of the corporate meetings in Boston. The idea was to re-create the commercial right on the spot by pulling some people out of the audience to come up and sing the commercial. The franchise owners didn't know we were there at the time. I was dressed as a waiter and Phil Perry had a 10-gallon western hat posing as a franchise owner. We were all scattered within the audience.
Cliff Eidelman from the advertising agency, who was responsible for putting this campaign together, was speaking at this corporate event. He called up Mark Veigha to talk about how this campaign had come together, with his phone call to Mark, the music, everything since it was so successful. As they were talking they asked if there were any in the audience who could sing, I raised my hand, remember I was dressed as a waiter going around pouring water into people's glasses. I got called up. Then one by one Mark Campbell, Jim Gilstrap, Phil Perry and myself were onstage at this corporate event singing one of the Sizzler commercials that we had recorded. That was pretty cool. The audience LOVED IT, and we had a great time. The flight from LA to Boston took longer than our singing. Still we got to spend about 3-days in Boston enjoying some of it's sights.
You really don't see too many Sizzlers in the US anymore, it seems that the whole Sizzler Corporation was purchased by an Australian company and now Sizzlers are going strong in that part of the world. It was great to have been a part of a huge advertising campaign for Sizzler....sounds good.
In 1984 I started singing on quite a few commercials. I had been out in California for about 7 years or so and SWITCH was already released from Motown. I had sung background with quite a few artists and was also singing lead as a guest vocalist on many projects. But one day I actually got called to go down and audition for a Pacific Bell commercial. I had never auditioned before because I came out to California with the group, so this was a new experience for me. I got the commercial and from there I've sung on many commercials, both lead and backgrounds.
One particular commercial was 'Peter Pan Peanut Butter'. I got to sing backgrounds on this commercial with my brother James and Jim Gilstrap. The day I got called for the commercial I had an appointment in the evening in Woodland Hills, CA at 7:00 PM, but this session was scheduled for 4:00 PM in a Los Angeles Studio. Anyone that knows the 101 FWY out here in LA, realizes that it's quite hard because of traffic to make it from LA to Woodland Hills, CA in a timely manner. The commercial session started at 4:00, but went until a little past 6:00. I had to leave right away to make it to my next appointment, but without breaking too many laws I made it to my next appointment on time.
That commercial ended up running for quite some time. Usually a commercial has a 13-week run cycle and if they renew the commercial it can run another 13-week cycle which would make one commercial running for 6 months or more. I don't quite remember how many cycles this particular commercial ran but it was well over a year. As a commercial runs the singers get residuals and this Peter Pan Peanut Butter Commercial, because of the different cycle's that it ran, was one of the longest and biggest paying residuals that I had back in the 80s.
You might remember this commercial and others of you reading this BLOG wasn't even born yet. But as a session singer you can sing on many different types of sessions. That can include records, movies, Radio Staion IDs, commercials, animation, floats for parades, pre-recorded vocals for a show that you might see at Disneyland like "Captain EO: and "Honey I Shrunk The Audience" and the list goes on. I've had the privilege of singing on all of the above within my career, so I thought I'd take a 'commercial break' from time to time to share some of those great experiences of singing on commercials as well.
This one was "Peter Pan Peanut Butter", but there will be some surprises in the future. I've had people say, "I never knew you sang on that"....
Usually people bypass the commercials, but from time to time I'm going to take a 'Commercial Break' but only on the ones I sang on.
Catch a glimpse of nostalgia with this clip from YouTube:
