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.