Follow-up single “Do The Donkey Kong” just missed the Hot 100 by a few spots (#103) a few months later. Nevertheless, the song was a hit it was certified Gold and parent album Pac-Man Fever (featuring other video game themed songs) also went Gold.Īfter that sudden breakout success in the spring of 1982, it was inevitable that the duo was to remain a one-hit wonder with their novelty track. Either the song was under-reported, or it was primarily attaining points from sales and jukebox rotations. (Billboard had adopted a policy in February 1982 which led to an overwhelming amount of stall-outs followed by sharp falls.) “Fever” also peaked at #7 on the Cashbox Singles Chart, a leading competitor to Billboard at the time, but it’s noticeably absent from the airplay archives compiled by Radio & Records, which like Cashbox is now defunct. It would peak at #9 for two weeks in March and April on the Hot 100 and slowly descended (for the time) down the top 40. Today, January 30, back in 1982, “Pac-Man Fever” rose from 45-38 on the Hot 100, becoming the duo’s first and only top 40 single. With that arcade game on the brain, they hit the jackpot. However, bigger things were on the horizon for the twosome, who had been together and recording since the 1960’s. The song imitated sports journalist Howard Cosell as Santa Claus with a chorus of cheerleaders, which Cosell didn’t particularly like, though the shelf life of the song was obviously limited. “Merry Christmas In The NFL” was the title, credited to Willis The Guard & Vigorish, and it spent a week at #82 on the chart dated December 27, 1980. It was also in 1980 that Buckner & Garcia first cracked the Hot 100 with a Christmas record. Chances are you’ve probably played it or some variation of it, like Ms. Heavy sales were almost immediate, both by individual players in arcades and those who desired units for personal use. by the fall of the same year and became one of the most recognizable figures in video game history. First introduced in Japan in the spring of 1980, it made its way to the U.S. Pac-Man, of course, is the famous arcade game and the name of the game’s title character, who zips around a maze looking to eat up a series of pac-dots and the occasional cherry before the four colorful enemies attack. From the joystick to a joyride up the charts, this is Buckner & Garcia with “Pac-Man Fever”. However, there was one such case where a landmark video game, one that took in billions of dollars in both game play and additional merchandise, made the final leap and became the subject of a top ten hit in early 1982 thanks to one of the earlier uses of sampling. In fact, music and video games really go hand in hand, especially now that well-known musicians have a much greater role in the content. There’s a certain musicality about it that some acts really like. With a reliance on synth-pop and programmed parts in a lot of mainstream music today, you’d think artists and producers were playing video games while creating hit songs.
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