On the charts February 27, 1982

40 years ago today, "Pac-Man Fever" was #18 (up 4) on the Billboard Hot 100, #16 (up 2) on Cash Box Top 100 Singles, and #5 (up 1) on Record World Singles.

Week 20: Pac-Man Fever Reliever

If, for some odd reason, you actually want a break from your Pac-Man Fever, there was this vintage spray can from Fun Sprays of Santa Ana, California. According to the back of the can, it was for "temporary relief of sweaty foreheads, crooked elbows, thumb blisters, indented handle palm prints, perspiring pits, quaking heart throbs and video wafer cravings."

Photo courtesy eBay back in 2005

Wednesday cover: "Pac Man Fever" [sic] by various

This cover produced by Shakedown Records or Sleek & Sound or [you pick] credited the same recording to many band names. It's largely been excised from the Web now, but I found a copy still on Spotify.

As best I know, the song was only available digitally. But on over a dozen different albums! Details (taken from my Pac-Man Fever Forever site) are below.

• American Horror Songs by Game Pros (Shakedown Records, 2014)
• Best of Kid's Party Music Playlist by Kids Tune Biz (Sleek & Sound, 2014)
• Big Time Summer Hits by Street Pop Stars (Sleek & Sound, 2014
• Dead Man's Haunted Halloween Songs & Sounds by Game League (Shakedown Records, 2014)
• Halloween Music of All Time by Pacman Fever (Comedy Classics, 2014)
• Kid's Favorite Songs for Parties & Birthdays by Children's Party Blitz (Sleek & Sound, 2014) — I'm missing the cover for this one.
• Kid's Urban Party Songs by Party Kids Combo (Sleek & Sound, 2014)
• Monster's Essential Halloween Music & Horror Sound Effects by Game League (Shakedown Records, 2014)
• Songs About Boys by Mr. Pac-Man (Goldenlane Records, 2014)
• Songs from Video Games & Television by Theme League Pros (Sleek & Sound, 2014)
• Top Halloween Songs 2014 by Game Boy (Shakedown Records, 2014)
• Ultimate Nightmare Before Christmas by Game League (Shakedown Records, 2014)
• Video Games TV Drama Movies & Film by Mike Parker (Comedy Classics, 2014)

Off-topic Tuesday: "Pac-Man" by "Weird Al" Yankovic

Actually not too off-topic! Weird Al released this parody of the Beatles' "Taxman" about the same time as Buckner & Garcia released "Pac-Man Fever". Imagine what might have been if it had caught on instead! Both songs even debuted together on The Dr. Demento Show, both local (12/20/1981) and national (1/3/1982).

Weird Al's song didn't become available on physical media until Dr. Demento's Basement Tapes No. 4 (1995/96), which was issued on both CD and cassette. The Basement Tapes were only available to Dr. Demento Society members.

Scan courtesy MadMusic.com

The song finally became more widely available as part of the Squeeze Box box set in 2017, although it, too, is now out of print. It was on a new disc/record in that set that was a compilation of mostly previously unreleased cuts called Medium Rarities.

Scan courtesy MadMusic.com

Amusing aside: There was a Pac-Man clone released for the Apple II that was called Taxman! Presumably this is just a coincidence.

Scan courtesy video-games-museum.com.

Screenshot courtesy MobyGames.com.

Screenshot courtesy MobyGames.com.

On Dr. Demento February 21, 1982

40 years ago today, "Pac-Man Fever" was #1 on the nationally syndicated Dr. Demento Show's weekly Funny Five. Thanks to Jeff Morris and his site for the information!

On the charts February 20, 1982

40 years ago today, "Pac-Man Fever" was #22 (up 2) on the Billboard Hot 100, #18 (up 11) on Cash Box Top 100 Singles, and #6 (up 13) on Record World Singles, it's first top 10 ranking on any chart!

Week 19: Sheet music

Any time you have a hit song, people are going to want to play it themselves. To do that, they need sheet music. And music publishers are usually happy to oblige, for a modest fee. Hence, we have the official "Pac-Man Fever" sheet music! (My copy is rather heavily used, I'm afraid.)

And what do you get for your $2.50? Well, first you get a reprint of the album cover with additional text underneath. Next, on the inside, you get some pretty simple piano music in B-flat major with the singing part and guitar chords. And I mean simple piano music. There's not a single triad to be found! The best you get are some dyads (two-note intervals) in the bass clef during the chorus. You do, however, get the opening music from the video game, if you ever wondered how it would go on the piano. (Interestingly, there is no separate credit or copyright notice for that bit, which technically should belong to Namco or Midway.)

I will give it credit for a dal segno segno (D.S.S.) notation, however. That's not something I usually see a lot.

What I really would have liked, however, was the music for the guitar solo. Sadly, that's not to be. Instead, it just says to ad lib for a verse.

Wednesday cover: "Pac-Man Fever" by Jacob Johnson

I'm not going to say much about this one. He ripped off the Buckner & Garcia instrumental to make it. You can apparently only listen to a preview online without buying it, but that's plenty.

Off-topic Tuesday: "Video Games" by the Toons

This ode to video games was part of an album released in 1982, the same year as the Pac-Man Fever album. It was even released as a single, but not until 1983. (Photo courtesy Discogs.com.)

On the charts February 13, 1982

40 years ago today, "Pac-Man Fever" was #29 (up 10) on Cash Box Top 100 Singles, #24 (up 9) on the Billboard Hot 100, and #19 (also up 9) on Record World Singles.

Week 18: Album ads

The Pac-Man Fever album was advertised in a few magazines. These are the ads I was able to find online.

From Cash Box (Feb 27, 1982)

From Electronic Games vol. 1, no. 3 (May 1982)

From Video Games vol. 1, no. 1 (Aug 1982)

Although there's some overlap in the text, the Cash Box ad is aimed at retailers, while the other two are for consumers. And, obviously, the only difference between the last two is the "Do the Donkey Kong" banner in the corner.

Update: The Nashville edition of TV Guide for April 10-16, 1982 contains an ad for the album as well.

Wednesday cover: "Pac-Man Fever (8 Bit Version)" by 8 Bit Universe

8 Bit Universe's original cover from 2015 features a higher-pitched version of the melody than the 2020 version (see last week) along with several other changes. Which do you prefer?

Off-topic Tuesday: "Space Invaders" by Uncle Vic

This 1980 song wasn't a Top 40 hit, but it has gotten a lot of airplay on the Dr. Demento Show right up to last month (so far). Apparently it was issued by two different record publishers that year. (Photos courtesy Discogs.com.)

40 years ago this month!

 The album Pac-Man Fever was released 40 years ago this month!

On the charts February 6, 1982

40 years ago today, "Pac-Man Fever" was #39 (up 5) on Cash Box Top 100 Singles, #33 (also up 5) on the Billboard Hot 100, and #28 on Record World Singles.

Week 17: Album flyer

I'm not quite sure where or how these flyers would have been given out, as it's looking for retailers to sell the album. And much like the t-shirt featured earlier, this flyer again has Pinky's eyes reversed. Scans courtesy the Video Game History Foundation (@GameHistoryOrg on Twitter).

Wednesday cover: "Pac Man Fever (2020 Remaster)" by 8 Bit Universe

8 Bit Universe does chiptune-style covers of popular music, although I don't know if they're actually chiptunes. (That is, made with actual vintage electronics.) As you can tell from the title, this song is their second version of "Pac-Man Fever". We'll cover the original version next week. Meanwhile, their YouTube channel tells you all the places to find them.

Notes on labels

I originally envisioned this project as just covering the 52 items. Then I started to track how "Pac-Man Fever" did on the charts. And cover versions of the songs. And it's vintage performances on The Dr. Demento Show. And... well, you get the idea.

The point is, I've introduced the "1 of 52" label so you can just see the the weekly entries for Pac-Man Fever items. In fact, here's a quick guide to what the labels will show you.

• 1 of 52  — one of the 52 weekly items that are the basis for this project
• charts — performance on the weekly charts of 1982
• cover — a Wednesday Cover (cover versions of the songs from Pac-Man Fever)
• in the media — vintage appearances on radio and television
• meta — posts about the blog itself (like this one)
• off-topic — Off-topic Tuesday (other video game songs or things not directly PMF-related)

If you're on the full version of the site (as opposed to the mobile version) you can see a list of all the labels on the right. The other labels mostly refer to the format or type of items, in case you just want to see things in certain categories.

Off-topic Tuesday: "Video Games" by Ronnie Jones

Originally released in 1980 in multiple countries, this song wasn't released in the U.S. until 1982. It failed to chart here, but made #28 on the Italian hit parade.