Photo courtesy the
Virtual Pac-Man Museum
Pac-Man Fever (both the song and the album) was quite a fad within the larger fad of "Pacmania." It spawned several interesting items all its own. Please note that I do not have any Pac-Man Fever memorbilia available for sale or trade. In fact, I don't necessarily even own all the itmes displayed here.
For the purposes of this page, I refer to products directly related to and sanctioned by Columbia / CBS as "official products."
The sheet music for "Pac-Man Fever" has the same Pac-Man picture on the front as featured on the album cover. It is four pages long, not counting the covers, and features the piano music, vocal music (with words, of course), and guitar chords. It does not, however, include the guitar solo.
There is also a 36 page song book (ISBN 0-89898-148-4), which again features the familiar Pac-Man photo on the cover, that contains all the album's songs. It includes "a special coloring page for each song." In it, however, only the simplified piano music and words are included. The music for "Pac-Man Fever" was also published in numerous other books of music for piano and other instruments in the early '80s.
The sheet music and song book may be the only items intended for the mass market, but there were a couple other items directly spawned by the album as well. First was a publicity photo of Buckner and Garcia running from a giant Pac-Man. This seems to be the only official photo used in the media of the day. Buckner and Garcia seem to have found a stash of these and included copies in some of the later CDs they sold.
Then there's this advertising sticker. It measured approximately four inches in diameter and says, "I'VE GOT PAC-MAN FEVER / Hear Buckner & Garcia On Columbia Records and Tapes." I have no idea how one got one of these back in the day. Perhaps working for a record store?
Another item I believe was probably only available for folks in the music business or record store employees is this promotional t-shirt. From the front, it looks like a regular Pac-Man t-shirt, but on the back is a reproduction of the album cover.
I came across this t-shirt on eBay in 2005. I e-mailed the seller and asked him where he got it. He replied he'd bought it on eBay the year before. I'm curious how I would have missed it, but I do believe it's the genuine article. This would be more trouble than it was worth to fake, although I'm curious why Pinky's eyes are inverted.
And a third item probably only sent to record stores was a poster. It's simply the album cover blown up to about 23" x 23". It pops up on ebay very infrequently.
Finally, while it's not actually a product, we have the Pac-Man Fever album ad. One magazine I know this appeared in was the first issue of Video Games, which also happened to feature a brief interview with Buckner and Garcia. You can be certain it appeared in others as well. Note that the text on the album shown in the ad looks different from that on the actual album. I assume this is either because the album cover design wasn't yet completed or that it didn't show up well enough in black and white.
The same notes that apply to the record prices culled from eBay circa 2000 apply here.
| Item | Count | Min | Max | Average | Median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sheet Music | 6 | $5.00 | $12.50 | $7.35 | $6.50 |
| Songbook | 2 | $5.00 | $31.01 | $18.01 | $18.01 |
| Sticker | 1 | $9.00 | $9.00 | $9.00 | $9.00 |
The phrase "Pac-Man fever" became quite popular on its own and appeared on other products licensed by Midway/Namco, although the products had nothing to do with the song. There were also, of course, products that referred to the song, but weren't sanctioned by Columbia/CBS. Here are a few of which I'm aware that fall into either of these categories.
I can only assume this jukebox strip for "Pac-Man Fever" wasn't sanctioned by either CBS or Midway. Or should I say, because it doesn't look like it was licensed by Midway, it must not have been done by CBS. The Pac-Man and monster on the strip are in different styles which weren't typically used together on items in the '80s. Not to mention the fact there's no Midway copyright or trademark notice on it.
I had previously identified this label as being just for the instrumental version. Jeffrey J. Pennisi pointed out that it's actually for the entire 45. The convention back then was to list the A side song (title track) in large letters, then the artist, then the B side song in smaller letters. So since the "Pac-Man Fever" 45 has the instrumental version on the back, this is the result.
The Pac-Man sticker set by Fleer is a difficult call. They were authorized by Midway and a few of the stickers quoted the lyrics of "Pac-Man Fever." Today, no doubt, those that did would have included copyright notices for the lyrics, but back then they weren't as uptight about such things. For now, since they're not a direct Pac-Man Fever product, I'll list them in this section.
So you say you're suffering from Pac-Man fever? Well then, you need a can of Pac-Man Fever Reliever! This came from Fun Sprays of Santa Ana, California. It has a Midway copyright notice on it, so it would appear to be officially licensed. According to the back of the can, it's for "temporary relief of sweaty foreheads, crooked elbows, thumb blisters, indented handle palm prints, perspiring pits, quaking heart throbs and video wafer cravings."
There was also a Pac-Man Fever design that appeared on many styles and colors of t-shirts back in the '80s. (This one just happened to be pink.) Whether Buckner and Garcia got a cut of any money generated by them is unknown, but doubtful. I believe new copies of this shirt are again being produced, so beware of buying something billed as an original 1980's t-shirt that was actually made in the 2000's.
In addition to the regular Pac-Man Fever shirt, there is this version: Camp Saginaw Fever . . . catch it. The shirt features Pac-Man and the monsters, but was almost definitely not sanctioned by Midway. I've seen at least two of these shirts show up on eBay.
I was initially uncertain exactly which Camp Saginaw this would be. David Latterman remembers the shirt from his stay there in 1981, and confirmed it's in Oxford, PA. He says it's a co-ed camp for kids ages 8 to 15.
And last, but certainly not least, is the game by the name of Pac-Man Fever for PlayStation 2 and Gamecube released in September 2002. This game is actually a "party-style" game as popularized by Mario Party. Pac-Man Fever features a variety of mini-games for up to four people. It includes not only Pac-Man, his family, and the ghosts, but also characters from other popular Namco franchises like Tekken and Soul Calibur. Is there any doubt this game would have been called Pac-Man Party if it weren't for Buckner and Garcia?
After the release of the CD, Buckner and Garcia created a CafePress store in 2002. All the items simply said, in a Pac-Man-like font, "I've got / Pac-Man Fever / Buckner & Garcia." There were a variety of items, including a selection of t-shirts, thong underwear, a lunchbox, hats, posters, a clock, and more. By the end of 2005, that version of the store appears to have been taken down.
The lunchbox should be noted in particular. In his 2003 album, Poodle Hat, "Weird Al" Yankovic recorded a song called "eBay." It was a parody of "I Want It That Way" by the Backstreet Boys and contained the following lyrics near the end: "Wanna buy (a Pac-Man Fever lunchbox)." Back around the Pac-Man Fever album's original release, there was never such a thing as a Pac-Man Fever lunchbox (just Pac-Man lunchboxes). It was just something Yankovic made up as a typical item bought and sold on eBay. It's unclear if Buckner and Garcia made this particular Cafepress item available in response to Yankovic's song or beforehand.
In 2011, the shop was restored, now featuring articles with either the promotional photo of Pac-Man chasing Buckner & Garcia or the new album cover. This store actually still exists, but is no longer linked to from BucknerGarcia.com.
The Buckner & Garcia CafePress store was later revived again in either late 2012 or January 2013. Now, instead of using a Pac-Man-like font, it contains a series of items with "I've got a pocket full of quarters and I'm headed to the arcade" (the opening line of the song) written on them in a handwritten-style font and "BucknerGacia.com" printed underneath. Items include many, many different styles of shirts and a puzzle.