Wednesday cover: "Pac-Man Fieber" by Gerald Mann (Germany)

This is the international cover version that classic video game fans in general have known about the longest, as photos of the front of the 45's picture sleeve showed up on the early Web.

You can see that, similar to the Finnish and Australian releases, Atari sponsored this version of the song to promote their Atari 2600 version of the game. Nikolaus Esche was hired to translate the lyrics. The B-side is a song Mann co-wrote. (Photos courtesy Discogs.com.)

But the best part is they made an official music video!

Wednesday cover: "Pac-Man-kuume" by Tijamaria (Finland)

Another international cover from 1983, this time with all-original music and vocals. And unlike the original, this one features no arcade samples, just synthesized effects.

This one also is a promotion for the Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man, as can be seen by the back cover. My working theory is that Atari licensed the song in territories where the original song wasn't released, like Finland and Australia. (Photos courtesy Ville Ranki.)

They then found local artists to perform the song in the native language. (Or, in the case of Australia, they just used the original.) Unfortunately, I've found no confirmation of this theory beyond the existence of the records.

Getting back to this release, the B-side is a love song whose title doesn't translate well I'm told. The orange sticker basically says "sample record / not for sale."

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."

Week 25: Mexican 12" single

In Mexico, there was a red vinyl 12" single  of "Pac-Man El Comelon". The music appears to be identical to the American 12", except the two sides are reversed. (Scans courtesy Discogs.com.) This concludes the look at international records.

Week 24: Puc-Man Fever album

Japan wasn't the only place to get the Puc-Man version. Puc-Man Fever was the name the album was released under in Hong Kong, too. (All photos courtesy eBay.com, IIRC.)

And not just the album title. The track list also includes "Puc-Man Fever". However, the credits for the album are almost identical to the American version. Including the "Puc-Man Fever" background singers, which should be different from the American version, but isn't!

Other than changing the "Pac" to "Puc", the album is much the same as the American version, including having the Pac-Man patterns on the sleeve.

Week 23: "Puc-Man Fever" by Buckner & Garcia

You might have noticed I left this international picture sleeve off last week. It gets special consideration for a couple reasons. First off, it's technically Buckner & Garcia covering their own song.

I seem to have misplaced the e-mail that told the story, but my memory is that Columbia wanted to release the song in Japan, where Pac-Man had originated. Except there, it was Puck Man. You can see Wikipedia for the oft-repeated story of why it was changed. (Flyer from The Arcade Flyer Archive.)

Puck Man flyer from Japan

I'm not sure how the jump was made from "Puck Man" to "Puc-Man". Most likely it was simply a miscommunication or a lack of research. But regardless, it at least sounds the same regardless of the spelling.

 

As you can imagine, neither Buckner nor Garcia spoke Japanese, so they couldn't re-record the entire song. But they could redo all the parts where the game was named. In fact, Garcia only had to redo the choruses! Did you ever notice "Pac-Man" is only said in the chorus?

So -- again, going from memory -- they flew out to California and Garcia redid the choruses. They also had to have a different set of backup singers redo the backup vocals. Drop all those new vocals in place of the old ones and voila: "Puc-Man Fever"!

I believe they did go to the trouble of also having the new backup singers redo the, "To the right", just before the guitar solo, just so it all sounded consistent. Judge for yourself, but then come back, because we're not done!

Another technicality is that this isn't really a picture sleeve. The actual sleeve containing the 45 is fairly plain. But there's a two-sided insert with the graphic on the front. From my understanding, this wasn't uncommon for Japanese 45s.

Finally, let's talk about the B-side. You might have noticed it said "Mousetrap" on the insert's front. It also says that on the insert's back and on the record! But it lies. (Well, maybe.) The second song is actually the instrumental version of "Do the Donkey Kong"!!!

Now perhaps not all the "Puc-Man Fever" 45s are like this. Some may actually have "Mousetrap" on the B-side. But my copy doesn't. Discogs does list both a regular version and a mispress with "Do the Donkey Kong", but I don't know how much research has been done.

So, there you go. More than you ever wanted to know about "Puc-Man Fever".

What's that? You want to hear the "Do the Donkey Kong" instrumental? Sorry, I'm saving that for DtDK month in June!