Week 52: Gold record

The final item for 52 Weeks of Pac-Man Fever is Jerry Buckner's "Pac-Man Fever" gold record. As discussed before, the single went gold in March 1982. Back then, that meant selling 1,000,000 copies. (Today, only 500,000 is required.)

Apart from these clippings from Radio & Records, I could not find a photo of the gold record awards. (Yes, the album went gold too.)

From Radio & Records, 16 Apr 1982

From Radio & Records, 2 July 1982

But here are photos of Buckner's gold single award! He was kind enough to take some for me when I asked him.

While I haven't seen photos of the actual, RIAA-issued gold records much, there have been a couple related oddities to pop up online. First is this gold record award apparently for Columbia Records president Al Teller. It can be yours for just $600.

There's also this award commemorating 1,000,000 copies of the Pac-Man Fever album. It was apparently presented to Shulman Record Co. by Listening Booth, a now defunct chain of record stores. This is odd, because even Buckner believes the album only sold around 900,000 copies.

Aside (courtesy Wikipedia): Until it got complicated in the digital age, albums required 500k copies for gold and 1,000,000 for platinum.

Originally singles required 1,000,000 copies for gold and 2,000,000 for platinum. Starting January 1, 1989, those numbers were halved.

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This is not actually the end of the 52 Weeks of Pac-Man Fever project! I had planned to end with something special for a grand finale, but it turns out just doing the project took up too much time to do that. So look for that by the album's 41st anniversary in January.

Also, due to me pausing them while looking for files for a particular one, there's still one more Wednesday cover coming this Wednesday. And I missed the events of March 20, 1982, which I'll have to write an entry for.

Finally, my followers over on Twitter have voted to keep Off-Topic Tuesday going. I don't, however, plan to keep cross-posting those to this blog. But look for those other entries I mentioned in the near future.

Week 51: "Pac-Man Fever (Eat 'Em Up) 2015 by Buckner & Garcia feat. Jace Hall

Do you remember "Pac-Man Fever Redux" by Jace Hall that we covered in March? It was a rap song that used Gary Garcia's vocals in the chorus. Here's a reminder.

Well, what if you took "Pac-Man Fever", added a modern, driving beat, and used a verse from "Pac-Man Fever Redux" as a rap break in the middle of it? Well, you'd have this song.

But, wait! What if you also got the creators of the viral "Pac-Man: The Movie" trailer to help make a music video for the song? Well, then you'd get this.

Week 50: Pocket Full of Quarters t-shirts

In late 2012 or January 2013, Buckner & Garcia opened a new Café Press store. It contained a series of items, all featuring the same graphic on them.

Yes, they all said "I've got a pocket full of quarters and I'm headed to the arcade" (the opening line of the song) in a handwritten-style font and "http://BucknerGacia.com" printed underneath. Items include many, many different styles of shirts and a puzzle.

I am as surprised as anyone to discover this store STILL EXISTS! But it now only features shirts. The puzzle is no longer available.

Week 49: Pac-Man Fever 30th Anniversary Edition

In 2012, for the 30th anniversary of the Pac-Man Fever album, Jerry Buckner self-published this special version of the album. The 1999 re-recordings are each followed by a commentary track by Buckner.

The final track is an interview recorded with Gary Garcia before he passed away. The album is no longer available, but Buckner has put it on YouTube.

Week 48: Fuel 2000 CD

Eight years after the K-Tel release, in 2010, the album was released by Fuel 2000. For unknown reasons, they changed the art and fonts. They also added two other Buckner & Garcia songs, "Hostage" and "E.T. (I Love You)", which had appeared on the 1999 Now & Then CD.

Week 47: Pac-Man Fever video game

This Mario Party-esque game was released for PS2 and GameCube in 2002. Honestly, it doesn't have anything to do with the song. Except that, if not for the song, they might not have named it this.

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.)

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

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.

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.

Week 42: OG "Pac-Man Fever" on CD

As you may have noticed, there was no CD version of PMF. The format didn't exist when the album was released. But the original song has been published three times on CD. (All scans courtesy Discogs.com.)

The first was the K-Tel compilation, Seems Like Yesterday Vol. IV - Early 80's, released in 1990.

The second was also a K-Tel compilation. This time it was Madcap Melodies, a 1996 compilation of novelty songs.

Finally, it was included on disc 3 of Rhino's box set, Like, Omigod! The '80s Pop Culture Box (Totally), from 2002.

Yes, you will find the song on other CDs, but those contain the 1999 re-recording.

UPDATE: Thanks to Ron "Boogiemonster" Gerber of radio show Crap From the Past, I now know that only the Omigod! CD actually has the complete song. The other two CDs fade the songs early, so are missing the last six seconds.

Week 40: T-shirts

The album t-shirt was covered earlier, but these Pac-Man Fever t-shirts were probably the most ubiquitous use of the phrase "Pac-Man Fever" outside the song. It came in a variety of colors and, like many t-shirt of the day, the design sparkled.

The design on the t-shirts was also available on other items, like this cap.

Bonus item: Camp Saginaw T-shirt

Over the years, a couple of these "Camp Saginaw Fever... catch it" shirts from the '80s from Camp Saginaw in Oxford, PA have hit eBay. (Hat tip to David Latterman for confirming the location.) I have serious doubts they were licensed by Midway.

Week 39: Buttons

Buttons were all the rage in the '80s, at least for a time. So naturally there were Pac-Man Fever buttons of various sorts. And probably mostly unlicensed. Here are some examples.

Week 38: "Circa: Now" album by Rocket From the Crypt

Perhaps the oddest Pac-Man Fever-related item, I debated whether to even include it. There are no Buckner & Garcia songs on this 1992 punk album. There's no Pac-Man on this album.

It's just that the CD is printed to look sort of like a PMF 45. I would never have known this existed of I hadn't seen a bare copy of the CD in a used CD shop. (Scans courtesy http://Discogs.com.)

Week 37: Columbia Hall of Fame 45

In 1983, Columbia issued a dual-hit 45 as part of their Hall of Fame series with "Pac-Man Fever" on one side and "Do the Donkey Kong" on the other. (All photos courtesy Discogs.com.)

It was reissued in 1987 with a different label and sleeve.

The Collectables label, the largest independently-owned reissue record label in the U.S., re-issued the 45 yet again later, although the exact date is apparently unknown.