Pac-Man Fever

For the 2002 video game, see Pac-Man Fever (video game). For the single from this album, see Pac-Man Fever (song).
Pac-Man Fever
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)
Producer Buckner & Garcia
Buckner & Garcia chronology

Pac-Man Fever
(1982)		 Now & Then
(1999)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
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] the single sold 2.5 million copies in total as of 2008.[5] It had been released independently earlier in the year on the BGO Records label, before being picked up by CBS. "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 album Pac-Man Fever itself went on to receive a Gold certification from the RIAA, for over 500,000 records sold;[6] the album sold 900,000 copies in total by the end of 1982. The duo performed both of these singles on American Bandstand on March 20, 1982,[7] as well as appearing later that day on Solid Gold,[8] singing "Pac-Man Fever".

Track listing

  1. "Pac-Man Fever" (Pac-Man) (3:46)
  2. "Froggy's Lament" (Frogger) (3:16)
  3. "Ode to a Centipede" (Centipede) (5:35)
  4. "Do the Donkey Kong" (Donkey Kong) (4:22)
  5. "Hyperspace" (Asteroids) (4:05)
  6. "The Defender" (Defender) (4:05)
  7. "Mousetrap" (Mouse Trap) (3:58)
  8. "Goin' Berzerk" (Berzerk) (4:17)

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!"

Re-release

In 1998, the duo was asked to record an unplugged version of "Pac-Man Fever" 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.

References

  1. ↑ Allmusic review
  2. ↑ Mark Bould. The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction. Routledge. p. 400. "Pac-Man Fever" (1982), a spoof of Ted Nugent's 1977 "Cat Scratch Fever",
  3. ↑ "Pac-Man Fever". Time Magazine. April 5, 1982. Retrieved October 15, 2009. Columbia/CBS Records' Pac-Man Fever...was No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 last week.
  4. ↑ "Popular Computing". McGraw-Hill. 1982: Volume 2. Retrieved August 14, 2010. Pac-Man Fever went gold almost instantly with 1 million records sold. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ↑ Turow, Joseph (2008). Media Today: An Introduction to Mass Communication (3rd ed. ed.). Taylor & Francis. p. 554. ISBN 0-415-96058-4. Retrieved 29 January 2012.
  6. ↑ RIAA Gold & Platinum Searchable Database - Pac-Man Fever. RIAA.com. Retrieved 2009-11-01.
  7. ↑ "American Bandstand Season 25 Episode Guide". TV.com. March 20, 1982. Retrieved August 14, 2010.
  8. ↑ "Solid Gold Season 2 Episode Guide". TV.com. March 20, 1982. Retrieved August 14, 2010.

External links