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Todd Ireland
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| Posted: 30 March 2012 at 3:12pm | IP Logged
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I just noticed in the database that "Pac-Man Fever" now appears on an CD titled Pac-Man Fever on Fuel 302061845. Is this really at long last *THE* Buckner & Garcia Pac-Man Fever album from 1982 consisting of all the original recordings?? I ask because up until this point, all CD releases of this album have been re-recordings. (Evidently, Columbia owns the masters but for some reason has declined for decades to reissue it on CD.)
Also, does anyone have the original vinyl LP who can report the run time of "Pac-Man Fever" on it? It's been issued on several CD compilations with a 3:46 run time and thus I'm wondering if this may also be the LP length?
Edited by Todd Ireland on 30 March 2012 at 3:12pm
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Todd Ireland
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| Posted: 30 March 2012 at 4:21pm | IP Logged
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Well, if the uploaded tracks on I-Tunes are any indication, it sounds like "Pac-Man Fever" on the Fuel release is the same re-recording that has appeared on CD in recent years. :-( This is one album I would absolutely love to see emerge on CD someday with all the original Columbia recordings (and complete with the fold-out "cheat sheet" of different patterns that can be used to navigate successfully through the game's maze!), but I'm losing hope of this ever coming to fruition with each passing year. Nonetheless, this fun squeaky-clean pop record brings back fond memories of my days as a pint-sized nine-year-old who could play over 45 minutes of Pac-Man on one quarter and in the process draw marveling crowds of people around my machine!
I also checked out Buckner & Garcia's website at www.bucknergarcia.com and don't see any indication of the original Columbia LP being reissued on CD there either. (I was also saddened to learn of Jerry Garcia's recent passing in November of last year.) The website does have a fun and nostalgic feature though where you can listen to original clips of Casey Kasem, Dick Clark, and Charlie VanDyke introducing "Pac-Man Fever" on their respective radio countdown shows in 1982!
Edited by Todd Ireland on 30 March 2012 at 4:22pm
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abagon
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| Posted: 30 March 2012 at 11:38pm | IP Logged
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Todd Ireland wrote:
| Also, does anyone have the original vinyl LP who can report the run time of "Pac-Man Fever" on it? It's been issued on several CD compilations with a 3:46 run time and thus I'm wondering if this may also be the LP length? |
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The actual running time of the "Pac-man Fever" on the original vinyl LP (Columbia RC 37941) is "3:54", and the listed time is "3:56" on the LP record label.
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Todd Ireland
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| Posted: 31 March 2012 at 10:14am | IP Logged
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Thank you very much for the info, Abagon! And of course Pac-Man was invented by a talented young video game designer named Tōru Iwatani in your home land of Japan where the game was originally known as "Puck Man". (Years later, Iwatani claimed in an interview with VH-1 that he incredibly never received ANY royalty compensation or extra payment whatsoever from the enormously massive worldwide success of Pac-Man!) Another bit of interesting trivia... "Puck Man" was changed to "Pac-Man" for American and worldwide release out of concern that vandals would alter the letter "P" to create a far more vulgar name in English!
Edited by Todd Ireland on 31 March 2012 at 11:23am
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Bill Cahill
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| Posted: 31 March 2012 at 6:49pm | IP Logged
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I haven't talked to Buckner in a LONG time but he told me that the song was a lease to Columbia which expired. Buckner may now own it but issuing it could be a legal issue as the sound effect rights are probably expired. He did tell me that the sound effects were legally complicated. Might have had the rights to use them in 1982 but not anymore.
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Todd Ireland
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| Posted: 31 March 2012 at 9:17pm | IP Logged
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Bill Cahill wrote:
| I haven't talked to Buckner in a LONG time but he told me that the song was a lease to Columbia which expired. Buckner may now own it but issuing it could be a legal issue as the sound effect rights are probably expired. He did tell me that the sound effects were legally complicated. Might have had the rights to use them in 1982 but not anymore. |
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That's interesting because Buckner & Garcia use the same video game sound effects in all their re-recordings, including "Pac-Man Fever".
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abagon
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| Posted: 01 April 2012 at 1:30am | IP Logged
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Thanks for the trivia, Todd.
When I was young, I used to play the Puck Man video game at an arcade in Japan.
Exactly, the sound effects on the "Puck-Man Fever" 45/LP are the same as the NAMCO's "Puck Man" video game.
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KentT
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| Posted: 02 April 2012 at 1:48pm | IP Logged
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A note, in Atlanta and the surrounding area, BGO Records released this tune for the first time. After it began getting heavy regional airplay, Columbia leased it for national release. The BGO 1001 original 45 is a scarce item.
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Topic: buckner & garcia "pac-man fever"
