Wednesday cover: "Pac-Man Fever" by Green Notes (Philippines)

Remember the international releases of "Pac-Man Fever"? Not all were mere repackagings of the Buckner & Garcia version. Some were done by native artists. This one from the Philippines, however, is rather odd. It uses the "instrumental" version of the Buckner & Garcia track and has a new vocalist, presumably the lead of the Green Notes, sing the lead. Unfortunately, it seems they possibly only did one take, as it's a little rough.

I've never seen a copy of this 45 with a sleeve. (Maybe a generic one.) It is extremely hard to find on eBay and isn't even listed on discogs.com. The few I've seen photos of also appear to be in rough shape, making me wonder if all surviving copies came out of jukeboxes.

You can also find the song on the Filipino release of Hooked on Disco, which is also very hard to find. You'll note that actually mixed up the artist credits on the back and miscredit it to the Echoes. The other song by the Echoes has a female lead, however, so I presume the Green Notes credit from the 45 is the correct one. Oh, and the B side of the 45 is a song called "Lift Off."

Off-Topic Tuesday: "Pac-Man" by Sudden Death (feat. Worm Quartet)

Sudden Death — these days performing just as Devo Spice — did this parody of "Smack That" by Akon featuring Eminem and figured VH-1's Totally Obsessed (and fellow comedy musician) Shoebox of Worm Quartet was just the one to sing along.

Aside: Level 257

Back when it still existed, Level 257 in Chicagoland had a Pac-Man history display on the bottom floor, including a timeline. The 1982 portion featured the Pac-Man Fever album.

 

Charting the Charts

Now that we've concluded the chart positions of all things Pac-Man Fever, here's some charts to show how they did. If anyone is a chart wiz and wants to take a crack and making more attractive charts, I will gladly share the data. Just contact me at 52ofpmf @at@ gmail .dot. com.

Week 46: K-Tel CD

After the self-published release, Buckner arranged for K-Tel to publish the re-recorded CD. Released in 2002, it's essentially the same as the 1999 release, with the K-Tel logo and some extra verbiage. (Photos courtesy Discogs.com.)

Wednesday cover: "Pac-Man Fever" by TAFI

 I'll be upfront and tell you I can't share the audio for this one because I've never heard it. I have yet to track down a copy of this 1983 LP at a reasonable price. But the song is the backing track for "Aerobic Routine #4". Side A has exercise instructions over the music, but side B is just the music.

How to properly credit the song is complicated. The album was created by Mary Boyd and Lettie Gillespie for Texas Aerobic Fitness Inc. (TAFI), and their names appear on the cover. However, a deeper dive into the credits reveals it was arranged and conducted by Dennis Buck. David Brody provided synthesizer effects and the vocals were by Doris Eugino, Janice Hardgrove, and Norm Michaels. It was published by Kimbo Educational Records.

Thanks to Discogs.com for the cover scan and credits!

On the charts August 21, 1982

40 years ago today, the Pac-Man Fever album was #178 (down 19) on Cash Box Top 200 Albums, its final week on the chart. This concludes the look back at Pac-Man Fever on the charts.

However... the song "Pac-Man Fever" was played one more time on American Top 40. Although it takes us past the 40th anniversary year of the song, it seems a fitting end to the project. Look for it in December.

Week 45: Cafepress lunchbox

Back around 2002, Buckner & Garcia had a CafePress store selling this design on all kinds of items: T-shirts, sweat shirts, caps, mugs, coasters, mouse pads, thong underwear, posters, a clock, a lunchbox, and more.

As a Weird Al fan, I took particular note of the lunchbox because in Al's song "eBay," he specifically lists a "Pac-Man Fever lunchbox" as one of the items he wants to buy. Prior to the CafePress store, there had never been such a thing, only Pac-Man lunchboxes.

Photo courtesy The Virtual Pac-Man Museum

Cover Wednesday: Rock Medley by Jimmy Osmond

From The Glory of America (1983, re-released as America Fest in 1984). "Pac-Man Fever" is in the middle of the medley. I've been unable to find it anywhere online, so I've uploaded an excerpt.

Courtesy Discogs.com

Courtesy Discogs.com

It was this version of the song, not the original, that inspired Derrick Bostrom's cover. That explains why that version lacks the third verse.

Off-Topic Tuesday: Overclocked Remix

Rather than doing a specific song, this week I'm plugging an entire site. OCRemix is a place for musicians to remix the music from video games of any age. Yes, even Pac-Man. Browse around and check it out. 

https://ocremix.org/ 

On the charts August 14, 1982

40 years ago today, the Pac-Man Fever album was #159 (down 21) on Cash Box Top 200 Albums.

Week 44: Now & Then EP by Buckner & Garcia (1999)

Shortly after the release of the re-recorded Pac-Man Fever album, the duo released this EP via MP3.com. (Sorry, this tiny image of the cover is the only one I can find now.)

It should not be confused with the 2009 EP called Now and Then. (Note the word "and" instead of an ampersand.) The two EPs only have two songs in common, and neither is "Pac-Man Fever". But the 1999 EP included a karaoke version of the song and an "unplugged" version.

The unplugged version of "Pac-Man Fever" was originally recorded for the nationally syndicated radio program Retro Rewind in 1998. The song is still lurking around the Internet, if you look carefully. (For example, https://archive.org/details/cftp-2010-05-21/.)

Four of the songs -- "It's Allright", "Pogwild", and the karaoke versions of "E.T. I Love You" and the 1999 version of "Pac-Man Fever" -- seem to be lost and unavailable anywhere. I sadly did not buy the EP while it was available.

Wednesday cover: "Pac-Man Fever" by Today's Sounds

The band is mainly Derrick Bostrom of Meat Puppets fame with Bruce Sandig. The version of "Pac-Man Fever" on the four-song EP was actually inspired not by the original, but by a version done in a medley by Jimmy Osmond. You can read Bostrom's account at his blog.

Sadly, the download link no longer works. That's the reason I haven't posted any covers lately. I've been desperately searching for this song online or the file on one of my hard drives, but to no avail. So I've finally just gone ahead and made it available from my site. Since Bostrom was giving away the whole EP plus bonus songs, I'm hoping he doesn't mind.

Off-Topic Tuesday: "Dig Dug" by Digital Air

This 1984 single is by Gary Wright, of "Dream Weaver" and "Love Is Alive" fame, and Paul Gordon. There is no album it came from. You can listen on YouTube.

You'll notice in the video it shows the back side of the single is "Berzerk". For years it seems people only found promo copies with "Dig Dug" also on the B side instead. But finally someone found a copy with "Berzerk" and also posted it to YouTube.

On the charts August 7, 1982

40 years ago today, the Pac-Man Fever album was #138 (down 30!) on Cash Box Top 200 Albums.

Week 43: Pac-Man Fever CD (1999)

After years of people asking about Pac-Man Fever on CD, Buckner & Garcia decided to re-record the entire album and release it on CD themselves. You see, CBS owns the original recordings and refused all requests for them.

Since CDs don't have record sleeves, to try to repeat the original experience of buying the album, the first 300 people to order also got a printed copy of the patterns from there original album, signed by both Buckner & Garcia. (Sadly, it doesn't fit well in the case.)

Here's the envelope and my receipt for the 1999 Pac-Man Fever CD. I was order #3!

But wait, there's more! Early orderers also got an 8x10 of the Buckner & Garcia promotional photo, mailed separately.

While they were working on the re-recordings, I was contacted by Mike Stewart looking for arcade sound samples. You can read more about that on my site. And, he also sent me a note about using the lyrics from my #PacManFever site for Gary to sing from. You can also read about that on my site.

Finally, he sent me some photos from the recording session(s). I don't think I've ever shared these two of Mike & Gary and Gary & Jerry before.

Update: So it turns out I had forgotten that Buckner & Garcia used the latter photo on their website back in '99.

Off-Topic Tuesday: "Computer Wars" by Began Began

This 1982 12" single includes samples from "Pac-Man," "Centipede" and elsewhere. Side A is the long version while side B is two different mixes of a short version. You can hear the whole thing on YouTube. I suspect you will either love or hate these tracks with very few falling in the middle.