Music / Pac-Man Fever (1982)

aka: Buckner And Garcia

Original version cover

Remake cover

For the trope about wildly inaccurate portrayals of Video Games, click here.

Pac-Man Fever is the sixth release by Buckner & Garcia, released in 1982. Named after the title song, it was the second album from the group, and is their most famous work ever.

The album became a top-ten hit, reaching #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1982, and eventually sold over a million copies. The single "Pac-Man Fever" sold 2.5 million copies as of 2008. In 1998, the duo was asked to record an unplugged version of "Pac-Man Fever" exclusively for the syndicated radio show Retro Rewind. In 2009, "Pac-Man Fever" was ranked at #98 on VH1's "Top 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders of the 80s" list.

They also inspired several copycats, including R. Cade and the Video Victims' album "Get Victimized!" (with songs about Ms. Pac-Man, Scramble, Frenzy, Donkey Kong, and Defender, as well as songs about arcades in general, like "Change Attendant" and "Video Magic"); and "Dream Weaver" singer Gary Wright's songs about Dig Dug and Berzerk, which he recorded under the name Digital Air. None of these were as successful as Pac-Man Fever.

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Tracklist:

Side One

1. "Pac-Man Fever" (3:46)
2. "Froggy's Lament" (3:16)
3. "Ode to a Centipede" (5:35)
4. "Do the Donkey Kong" (4:22)

Side Two

1. "Hyperspace" (4:05)
2. "The Defender" (4:05)
3. "Mousetrap" (3:58)
4. "Goin' Berzerk" (4:17)

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I got a pocket full of tropes and I'm headed to the arcade:

• Album Title Drop: "I've got Pac-Man Fever".
• Appeal to Novelty: Played with; after the single "Pac-Man Fever" became a hit, Buckner and Garcia signed a record deal with Columbia/CBS Records. The duo did not want to become a novelty act, but Columbia insisted on a full album of video-game songs, which the group produced in a month.
• Book Ends: The album starts with "I got Pac-Man Fever, it's driving me crazy" and ends with "I think I'm going Berzerk, I think I'm losing my mind".
• Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are: "Ode to a Centipede" has the singer doing this to the centipede (at one point even using the trope phrase), bordering on Stalker with a Crush.
  You can't get away little centipede.
  I'm right behind you.
  Don't try hiding behind the mushrooms.
  I see you!
• Death In All Directions: "Hyperspace," based on Asteroids
  Asteroids around me, don't know where to run;
  I'm somewhere between the moon and the sun.
• Descent into Addiction: "Pac-Man Fever" describes the player as obsessively spending all of his money on the game every day and developing callouses on his fingers.
• Dissonant Serenity: "Goin' Berzerk" has traces of this, with lyrics about being trapped in a maze of killer robots juxtaposed with a gentle piano melody.
• Fake-Out Fade-Out: "Do The Donkey Kong", in the style of the Contours' "Do You Love Me".
• It's All Upstairs From Here: "Do the Donkey Kong".
• Predators Are Mean: "Mousetrap".
• Protagonist Title: Several songs feature the name of the game's lead character in the title (Pac-Man Fever, Froggy's Lament, The Defender, arguably Mousetrap). A couple (Do the Donkey Kong, Ode to a Centipede) were Antagonist Titles instead.
• Sampling: The songs sprinkle in some sound effects from the original arcade games they were based on. They were recorded from gameplay sessions on actual cabinets at a local deli, as that was the only way to rip them at the time. Allegedly, the sound of a man ordering a pastrami can faintly be heard at one point during "Pac-Man Fever", which was edited out in the 1999 remake. The sound effects were left verbatim in all of the remasters (except for "Mouse Trap", which used Stock Sound Effects instead, as the original recording was lost, and Mouse Trap (1981) is a rare game to begin with), and the difference in sound quality is rather jarring to say the least.
• Sanity Slippage Song: "Pac-Man Fever" and "Goin' Berzerk".
  I think I'm goin' berzerk. I think I'm losing my mind.
  I'm getting lost in the shuffle. It happens every time.
• Shout-Out: "Froggy's Lament" is a tribute to Smilin' Ed McConnell and Froggy the Gremlin from the children's television show Andy's Gang
  Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy!
• Stock Sound Effects: The re-release version of "Mousetrap" had to make use of stock sound effects of a cat, dog, and bird since there wasn't a functioning Mousetrap arcade game at the time of the recording to capture its sounds.
• Title Track: "Pac-Man Fever".