| Pac-Man Fever | ||||
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| Studio album by Buckner & Garcia | ||||
| Released | 1982 | |||
| Recorded | 1981 | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 32:53 | |||
| Label | Columbia/CBS Records (1982) RC 37941 Buckner & Garcia Productions (1999) K-tel Entertainment (2002 version) |
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| Producer | Buckner & Garcia | |||
| Buckner & Garcia chronology | ||||
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| Allmusic | [1] |
Pac-Man Fever is a 1982 concept album recorded by Buckner & Garcia. It is also the name of the first song on that album. Each song on the album is about a different classic arcade game, and uses sound effects from that game. The album was released as an LP, a cassette, an 8-track tape, and later completely re-recorded for CD release in 1999, and 2002. The title itself is a parody of “Cat Scratch Fever” by Ted Nugent.[2]
The title song, "Pac-Man Fever", was released as a single in December 1981 and became a top-ten hit, peaking at #9 in March 1982 on the Billboard Hot 100[3] and earning Gold certification by the RIAA for selling over a million records.[4] "Do the Donkey Kong" was the second single released from the album, but it failed to chart except on Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles at #103. Like the title song, the Pac-Man Fever album itself went on to receive a Gold certification from the RIAA, with over 500,000 records sold.[5] The duo performed both of these singles on American Bandstand on March 20, 1982,[6] as well as appearing later that day on Solid Gold,[7] singing "Pac-Man Fever."
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Froggy's Lament also pays tribute to Smilin' Ed McConnell and Froggy the Gremlin from Andy's Gang with its lyrics "Hiya, kids" and "Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy!"
In 1998 the duo was asked to record an unplugged version of the song exclusively for the syndicated radio show Retro Rewind. In 1999, a re-recorded version of the album was released independently by Buckner and Garcia, which was released commercially through K-Tel in 2002. The re-release was anxiously awaited by fans of the original album. However, Buckner and Garcia could not obtain the original master recordings from Sony Music Entertainment, so the duo was forced to record new performances of the songs and recreate a lot of the sound effects either digitally or musically. The result led to disappointment on the part of many fans and began a widespread search for the original vinyl, now hard to find. Some of the changes that occurred between the original and the re-recorded version were as follows:
On December 13th 2010, it was announced by Ozone Entertainment that the full Pac-Man Fever album would come to the Rock Band Network in early 2011. The first half of the album came in June, and the last half of the album came in November. It is available for Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's Playstation 3.[9][10]