On the charts January 30, 1982

40 years ago today, "Pac-Man Fever" was #46 (up 12) on Cash Box Top 100 Singles and #38 (up 8) on the Billboard Hot 100, marking its debut in the top 40! I was unable to find the Record World Singles chart for this week.

Week 16: Countdown records

The album and singles aren't the only vinyl with "Pac-Man Fever". They were also on the music chart countdown radio shows of the day, which were distributed to stations on records. There were two major nationally syndicated ones.

American Top 40, hosted by Casey Kasem, was based on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was four hours long. "Pac-Man Fever" was on it from January 30, 1982 to May 1, 1982. The song was also a "Long Distance Dedication" on December 11, 1982.

The Dick Clark National Music Survey was a top 30 countdown lasting three hours. During the time "Pac-Man Fever" was on the charts, it was based on the Cash Box Top 100 Singles chart. "Pac-Man Fever" was on it from February 6, 1982 to May 15, 1982.

Thanks to Discogs.com for the photos.

Wednesday cover: "Pac-Man Fever" by DiAN

This cover was released on the Join the Pac: Pac-Man 40th Anniversary Album in 2020 with Jerry Buckner's blessing. DiAN is a Japenese trio.

Off-topic Tuesday: "Space Invaders" by Player [1]

Another Australian video game song (see Jan 4), but about a specific game instead of them in general. This one hit #3 on the Kent Music Report charts in 1980!

Further research revealed this is actually just one song from an album called Game Over that has other video game related songs! But I'm having problems finding the entire album available anywhere.

On the charts January 23, 1982

40 years ago today, "Pac-Man Fever" was #58 (up 21!) on Cash Box Top 100 Singles and #45 (up 19!) on the Billboard Hot 100. I was unable to find the Record World Singles chart for this week.

Week 15: Pac-Man Fever t-shirt

Another item I believe was given exclusively to record stores is a Pac-Man Fever t-shirt. From the front, it appears to be a normal Pac-Man t-shirt, but on the back is a graphic of the PMF album cover. (Photos from a 2005 eBay auction by user adoypoops.)

It's hard to be certain from the photo, but it appears they didn't include Clyde just behind Blinky. There's also the error of Pinky's inverted eyes. The songs listed are all from side 1 of the album and are in album order.

On Dr. Demtento January 17, 1982

40 years ago today, the song "Pac-Man Fever" was #9 on the local (KMET, Los Angeles) Dr. Demento Show weekly Top Ten  Thanks to Jeff Morris and his site, the Demented Music Database, for the information!

On the charts January 16, 1982

40 years ago today, "Pac-Man Fever" was #79 on Cash Box Top 100 Singles, #72 on Record World Singles, and #64 (up 12) on the Billboard Hot 100.

Week 14: Album flat

These are called album flats. They're simply oversized photos of the Pac-Man Fever album cover used to advertise the album in record stores. I saw two different eBay sellers list copies of this poster of the album cover back in 2005. One said it was 24" in size; the other said 23". And I'm not sure I've seen another one listed since.

Thanks to Insane Ian for clearing up what these are!

On the charts January 9, 1982

40 years ago today, "Pac-Man Fever" debuted at #76 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Week 13: Pac-Man Fever sticker

Columbia Records created multiple items to advertise the album, mainly in record stores. This is a 4" sticker they created.

Wednesday cover: "Pac-Man Fever" by the BGMs

The BGMs are a Brazilian duo of Marcio Campassi and Marcos Lima who primarily do video game music. They originally released this cover of "Pac-Man Fever" in 2014, later making it part of a Pac-Man Fever EP in 2017.

The EP contains both the regular song and a karaoke mix. I was unable to find a Twitter presence for them, but they do have Facebook and SoundCloud pages.

It turns out the BGMs' cover is the ONLY cover of Pac-Man Fever to include the "insert coin" sound (a Pac-Man chomp) before playing the intro music.

Off-topic Tuesday: "Computer Games" by Mi-Sex

"Pac-Man Fever" was the first video game song to hit the Top 10 in the U.S., but it was not the first video game song. This song hit #1 on Australia's Kent Music Report in November 1979!

Wikipedia says "Computer Games" by Mi-Sex also hit #2 in Canada and #5 in New Zealand. Although released in the U.S., the best it did on the charts here was #61 on Hot Dances Club Songs.

National Dr. Demento debut

On January 3, the song "Pac-Man Fever" made its debut on the nationally syndicated version of The Dr. Demento Show. (It's debut on the local show was a couple weeks earlier.) Thanks to Jeff Morris and his site, the Demented Music Database, for the information!

Week 12: Jukebox title strip

If you're going to put a "Pac-Man Fever" 45 in your jukebox, you needed a strip to go with it. It appears there were both color and black and white versions of the strip. (Scans courtesy jscaptura of http://45spaces.com.) 

It's interesting that they mixed a ghost with arms with an armless Pac-Man. This was not typically done with licensed merchandise at the time. (Although you'll also notice that there's no Midway trademark notice either, so were the graphics even officially licensed?) However, you would still see this Pac-Man as part of the "Pac-Man" word logo on said merchandise.

It's actually interesting that there was a picture on the strip at all. Although it certainly wasn't unheard of, putting images on a 45's jukebox title strip wasn't the common practice of the day.

I've learned that there were two major jukebox title strip printers back in the day: Star and Sterling. I'm uncertain which company printed these. Or even whether it was the same company that did both, although that seems highly likely.