Buckner & Garcia was a duo consisting of Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia from Akron, Ohio. Their first collaboration was in 1980, when they wrote a novelty Christmas song, "Merry Christmas in the NFL", imagining Howard Cosell as Santa Claus. Performed under the pseudonym "Willis The Guard & Vigorish", the song reached #82 on the Billboard charts[1] despite limited airplay after Cosell found the song offensive. In 1981, the duo wrote a sentimental country song called "Footprints in the Sand," performed by Edgel Groves. They also wrote the lyrics for extra verses of an extended version of the WKRP in Cincinnati theme song in 1982.
However, the duo is best known for the song "Pac-Man Fever", which became a large novelty hit in 1982, peaking at #9 in the United States.[2] It earned a million-selling Gold-certified 45. Later the same year, after the song became a hit, they signed a record deal with Columbia/CBS Records. According to interviews, the duo never wanted to become a novelty act known for songs based on video games, but when it signed with the label, the company insisted on a full album of video-game songs, although the duo had intended to write a more varied collection of pop music. They complied despite their misgivings and released Pac-Man Fever, a full album consisting entirely of songs about arcade video games.[3]
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The rest of their band consisted of Ginny Whitaker (drums), Larry McDonald (bass guitar), Chris Bowman (lead and rhythm guitar), Rick Hinkle (lead and rhythm guitar on "Pac-Man Fever", "Mousetrap", and "Goin' Berserk"), Mike Stewart (Moog synthesizer on "Mousetrap" and "Goin' Berserk"), and David "Cozy" Cole (syndrum). Steve Carlisle and Sharon Scott provided background vocals on "Pac-Man Fever".
The duo's intended follow-up to "Pac-Man Fever" was "E.T., I Love You," which, despite permission from Steven Spielberg, was shelved by the label in favor of Neil Diamond's unauthorized "Heartlight," which brought on a lawsuit. The song was never officially released by the duo until its 1999 album Now & Then (it was, however, re-recorded and released without Buckner or Garcia's permission or knowledge by a group called the Starlight Children's Chorus on the album E.T., I Love You & Other Extra Terrestrial Songs for Children.[4][5]) After they faded from the spotlight, they kept busy writing songs for other performers (for example, Anne Murray's 1985 hit "On and On" was written by Jerry Buckner) and commercial jingles.
When the Pac-Man Fever album was re-released on CD in 1999, Buckner and Garcia were not allowed to access their original recordings from 1982, and Sony Music Entertainment refused to release the original album on CD. The re-release instead contains modern sound-alike re-recordings of all their songs. Furthermore, since they were unable to find a Mousetrap machine (or any of the home versions) from which to record game sounds, the re-recording of the relevant track instead featured sounds from real dogs, cats, and pigeons instead of game sounds. When the duo re-formed the band in 1999 to re-record Pac-Man Fever, Danny Jones became the group's drummer, Whitaker having died in the interim. Stewart returned as bassist; none of the other band members returned. They followed this up with Now & Then, an album released only through mp3.com that included four new songs (none based on video games but one based on Pogs), plus a new recording of "E.T., I Love You"; karaoke versions of both it and "Pac-Man Fever"; and an acoustic recording of the latter.
The pair still frequently collaborates, including writing and performing on many original songs on the Waffle House jukebox, several of which were released on a pair of albums,[6][7] as well as voiceover work, with Jerry Buckner being the more visible member of the pair.
In 2007, Buckner wrote and released a solo album of instrumentals, entitled Somewhere in Time. In 2009, "Pac-Man Fever" ranked at #98 on VH1's Top 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders Of The 80's" list. In early 2010, Jerry Buckner's friend, surrealist animator Yanni Osmond licensed use of the songs, including "Hyperspace" and "Goin' Berzerk" for use in an upcoming cartoon called Living Evil. On June 10, 2010, they released a song entitled Keepin' the Dream Alive, with part of the proceeds being donated to aid the All-American Soap Box Derby in their hometown of Akron.[8]
On September 9, 2011, Buckner & Garcia revealed their new song on Whiskey Media's Big Live Live Show: Live 2. The song is called "Found Me The Bomb" and it's about the gaming website Giant Bomb. The song was made after an interview in June, 2011, where Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia called in during a live Pac-Man tournament Giant Bomb was having. Ryan Davis jokingly said during a podcast that they should make a song about them and then to his shock one day he received an mp3 containing the new song. The song will be distributed free on giantbomb.com and it will also appear on the Rock Band Network.[9]
Gary Garcia died at his home in Englewood, Florida on November 17, 2011 from undisclosed causes.[10]