Buckner & Garcia
Encyclopedia
Buckner & Garcia was a duo consisting of Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia from Akron, Ohio
. Their first collaboration was in 1980, when they wrote a novelty Christmas song, "Merry Christmas in the NFL", imagining Howard Cosell
as Santa Claus
. Performed under the pseudonym "Willis The Guard & Vigorish
", the song reached #82 on the Billboard charts despite limited airplay after Cosell found the song offensive. In 1981, the duo wrote a sentimental country
song called "Footprints in the Sand," performed by Edgel Groves
. They also wrote the lyrics for extra verses of an extended version of the WKRP in Cincinnati
theme song in 1982.
However, the duo is best known for the song "Pac-Man Fever
", which became a large novelty hit in 1982, peaking at #9 in the United States
. It earned a million-selling Gold-certified 45. Later the same year, after the song became a hit, they signed a record deal with Columbia
/CBS Records
. According to interviews, the duo never wanted to become a novelty act known for songs based on video games, but when it signed with the label, the company insisted on a full album of video-game songs, although the duo had intended to write a more varied collection of pop music. They complied despite their misgivings and released Pac-Man Fever
, a full album consisting entirely of songs about arcade video games
.
), Larry McDonald (bass guitar
), Chris Bowman (lead
and rhythm guitar
), Rick Hinkle (lead and rhythm guitar on "Pac-Man Fever", "Mousetrap", and "Goin' Berserk"), Mike Stewart (Moog synthesizer
on "Mousetrap" and "Goin' Berserk"), and David "Cozy" Cole (syndrum). Steve Carlisle and Sharon Scott provided background vocals on "Pac-Man Fever".
The duo's intended follow-up to "Pac-Man Fever" was "E.T.
, I Love You," which, despite permission from Steven Spielberg
, was shelved by the label in favor of Neil Diamond
's unauthorized "Heartlight
," which brought on a lawsuit. The song was never officially released by the duo until its 1999 album Now & Then (it was, however, re-recorded and released without Buckner or Garcia's permission or knowledge by a group called the Starlight Children's Chorus on the album E.T., I Love You & Other Extra Terrestrial Songs for Children
.) After they faded from the spotlight, they kept busy writing songs for other performers (for example, Anne Murray
's 1985 hit "On and On" was written by Jerry Buckner) and commercial jingles.
When the Pac-Man Fever album was re-released on CD in 1999, Buckner and Garcia were not allowed to access their original recordings from 1982, and Sony Music Entertainment
refused to release the original album on CD. The re-release instead contains modern sound-alike re-recordings of all their songs. Furthermore, since they were unable to find a Mousetrap machine (or any of the home versions) from which to record game sounds, the re-recording of the relevant track instead featured sounds from real dogs, cats, and pigeons instead of game sounds. When the duo re-formed the band in 1999 to re-record Pac-Man Fever, Danny Jones became the group's drummer, Whitaker having died in the interim. Stewart returned as bassist; none of the other band members returned. They followed this up with Now & Then, an album released only through mp3.com
that included four new songs (none based on video games but one based on Pogs
), plus a new recording of "E.T., I Love You"; karaoke
versions of both it and "Pac-Man Fever"; and an acoustic recording of the latter.
The pair still frequently collaborates, including writing and performing on many original songs on the Waffle House
jukebox, several of which were released on a pair of albums, as well as voiceover work, with Jerry Buckner being the more visible member of the pair.
In 2007, Buckner wrote and released a solo album of instrumentals, entitled Somewhere in Time. In 2009, "Pac-Man Fever" ranked at #98 on VH1's Top 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders Of The 80's" list. In early 2010, Jerry Buckner's friend, surrealist animator
Yanni Osmond licensed use of the songs, including "Hyperspace" and "Goin' Berzerk" for use in an upcoming cartoon called Living Evil. On June 10, 2010, they released a song entitled Keepin' the Dream Alive, with part of the proceeds being donated to aid the All-American Soap Box Derby
in their hometown of Akron.
On September 9, 2011, Buckner & Garcia revealed their new song on Whiskey Media's
Big Live Live Show: Live 2. The song is called "Found Me The Bomb" and it's about the gaming website Giant Bomb
. The song was made after an interview in June, 2011, where Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia called in during a live Pac-Man
tournament Giant Bomb was having. Ryan Davis jokingly said during a podcast that they should make a song about them and then to his shock one day he received an mp3 containing the new song. The song will be distributed free on giantbomb.com and it will also appear on the Rock Band Network.
Gary Garcia died at his home in Englewood, Florida
on November 17, 2011 from undisclosed causes.
Akron, Ohio
Akron , is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Summit County. It is located in the Great Lakes region approximately south of Lake Erie along the Little Cuyahoga River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 199,110. The Akron Metropolitan...
. Their first collaboration was in 1980, when they wrote a novelty Christmas song, "Merry Christmas in the NFL", imagining Howard Cosell
Howard Cosell
Howard William Cosell was an American sports journalist who was widely known for his blustery, cocksure personality. Cosell said of himself, "Arrogant, pompous, obnoxious, vain, cruel, verbose, a showoff. I have been called all of these...
as Santa Claus
Santa Claus
Santa Claus is a folklore figure in various cultures who distributes gifts to children, normally on Christmas Eve. Each name is a variation of Saint Nicholas, but refers to Santa Claus...
. Performed under the pseudonym "Willis The Guard & Vigorish
Vigorish
Vigorish, or simply the vig, also known as juice or the take, is the amount charged by a bookmaker, or bookie, for his services. In the United States it also means the interest on a shark's loan. The term is Yiddish slang originating from the Russian word for winnings, выигрыш vyigrysh...
", the song reached #82 on the Billboard charts despite limited airplay after Cosell found the song offensive. In 1981, the duo wrote a sentimental country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
song called "Footprints in the Sand," performed by Edgel Groves
Edgel Groves
Edgel Groves is a recording artist/singer/songwriter who recorded the Hit single "Footprints in the Sand" in 1981. The song sold millions of copies and the record was #1 in "country music" and was a cross over hit and became #1 in Christian and country gospel. It was also voted the number one...
. They also wrote the lyrics for extra verses of an extended version of the WKRP in Cincinnati
WKRP in Cincinnati
WKRP in Cincinnati is an American situation comedy that featured the misadventures of the staff of a struggling fictional radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio. The show was created by Hugh Wilson and was based upon his experiences working in advertising sales at Top 40 radio station WQXI in Atlanta...
theme song in 1982.
However, the duo is best known for the song "Pac-Man Fever
Pac-Man Fever (song)
"Pac-Man Fever" is a hit single by Buckner & Garcia. Capitalizing on the video game craze of the early 1980s, the song, about the classic video game Pac-Man, peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US in March 1982. That same month, it was certified Gold by the RIAA for over 1,000,000 units...
", which became a large novelty hit in 1982, peaking at #9 in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It earned a million-selling Gold-certified 45. Later the same year, after the song became a hit, they signed a record deal with Columbia
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
/CBS Records
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....
. According to interviews, the duo never wanted to become a novelty act known for songs based on video games, but when it signed with the label, the company insisted on a full album of video-game songs, although the duo had intended to write a more varied collection of pop music. They complied despite their misgivings and released Pac-Man Fever
Pac-Man Fever (album)
Pac-Man Fever is a 1982 concept album recorded by Buckner & Garcia. It is also the name of the first song on that album. Each song on the album is about a different classic arcade game, and uses sound effects from that game. The album was released as an LP, a cassette, an 8-track tape, and later...
, a full album consisting entirely of songs about arcade video games
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
.
History
The rest of their band consisted of Ginny Whitaker (drumsDrum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
), Larry McDonald (bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
), Chris Bowman (lead
Lead guitar
Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
and rhythm guitar
Rhythm guitar
Rhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
), Rick Hinkle (lead and rhythm guitar on "Pac-Man Fever", "Mousetrap", and "Goin' Berserk"), Mike Stewart (Moog synthesizer
Moog synthesizer
Moog synthesizer may refer to any number of analog synthesizers designed by Dr. Robert Moog or manufactured by Moog Music, and is commonly used as a generic term for older-generation analog music synthesizers. The Moog company pioneered the commercial manufacture of modular voltage-controlled...
on "Mousetrap" and "Goin' Berserk"), and David "Cozy" Cole (syndrum). Steve Carlisle and Sharon Scott provided background vocals on "Pac-Man Fever".
The duo's intended follow-up to "Pac-Man Fever" was "E.T.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a 1982 American science fiction film co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Melissa Mathison and starring Henry Thomas, Dee Wallace, Robert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore, and Peter Coyote...
, I Love You," which, despite permission from Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
, was shelved by the label in favor of Neil Diamond
Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....
's unauthorized "Heartlight
Heartlight (song)
"Heartlight" is a song written by Neil Diamond, Carole Bayer Sager and her then-husband Burt Bacharach, and recorded by Diamond in 1982. The song is the first track on Diamond's 1982 album, also titled Heartlight, and reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming his eighth top 5 hit on...
," which brought on a lawsuit. The song was never officially released by the duo until its 1999 album Now & Then (it was, however, re-recorded and released without Buckner or Garcia's permission or knowledge by a group called the Starlight Children's Chorus on the album E.T., I Love You & Other Extra Terrestrial Songs for Children
E.T., I love you
E.T., I Love You and Other Extra-Terrestrial Songs for Children is an album by the group the Starlight Children's Chorus, released in 1983 under Kid Stuff Records. It featured a song "E.T., I Love You" by Buckner & Garcia, which was originally written to accompany the major motion picture E.T...
.) After they faded from the spotlight, they kept busy writing songs for other performers (for example, Anne Murray
Anne Murray
Morna Anne Murray CC, ONS is a Canadian singer in pop, country and adult contemporary styles whose albums have sold over 54 million copies....
's 1985 hit "On and On" was written by Jerry Buckner) and commercial jingles.
When the Pac-Man Fever album was re-released on CD in 1999, Buckner and Garcia were not allowed to access their original recordings from 1982, and Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....
refused to release the original album on CD. The re-release instead contains modern sound-alike re-recordings of all their songs. Furthermore, since they were unable to find a Mousetrap machine (or any of the home versions) from which to record game sounds, the re-recording of the relevant track instead featured sounds from real dogs, cats, and pigeons instead of game sounds. When the duo re-formed the band in 1999 to re-record Pac-Man Fever, Danny Jones became the group's drummer, Whitaker having died in the interim. Stewart returned as bassist; none of the other band members returned. They followed this up with Now & Then, an album released only through mp3.com
MP3.com
MP3.com is a web site operated by CNET Networks providing information about digital music and artists, songs, services, community, and technologies. It is probably better known for its original incarnation, as a legal, free music-sharing service, popular with independent musicians for promoting...
that included four new songs (none based on video games but one based on Pogs
Pogs
Pogs is a game that was popularized during the early 1990s. The word "pog" also refers to the discs used to play the game. The name originates from POG, a brand of juice made from passionfruit, orange and guava; the use of the POG bottle caps to play the game pre-dated the game's commercialization...
), plus a new recording of "E.T., I Love You"; karaoke
Karaoke
is a form of interactive entertainment or video game in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music using a microphone and public address system. The music is typically a well-known pop song minus the lead vocal. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol,...
versions of both it and "Pac-Man Fever"; and an acoustic recording of the latter.
The pair still frequently collaborates, including writing and performing on many original songs on the Waffle House
Waffle House
Waffle House is a restaurant chain with over 1600 locations found in 25 states in the United States. Most of the locations are in the Southern United States, where the chain remains a regional cultural icon...
jukebox, several of which were released on a pair of albums, as well as voiceover work, with Jerry Buckner being the more visible member of the pair.
In 2007, Buckner wrote and released a solo album of instrumentals, entitled Somewhere in Time. In 2009, "Pac-Man Fever" ranked at #98 on VH1's Top 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders Of The 80's" list. In early 2010, Jerry Buckner's friend, surrealist animator
Animator
An animator is an artist who creates multiple images that give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence; the images are called frames and key frames. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, video games, and the internet. Usually, an...
Yanni Osmond licensed use of the songs, including "Hyperspace" and "Goin' Berzerk" for use in an upcoming cartoon called Living Evil. On June 10, 2010, they released a song entitled Keepin' the Dream Alive, with part of the proceeds being donated to aid the All-American Soap Box Derby
Soap Box Derby
The Soap Box Derby is a youth soapbox car racing program which has been run in the United States since 1934. World Championship finals are held each July at Derby Downs in Akron, Ohio...
in their hometown of Akron.
On September 9, 2011, Buckner & Garcia revealed their new song on Whiskey Media's
Whiskey Media
Whiskey Media is an independent American online media company founded by CNET co-founder Shelby Bonnie. It is the parent company of Giant Bomb, Comic Vine, Anime Vice, Tested and Screened. Whiskey Media websites are wiki community based, while maintaining an editorial staff. The company's target...
Big Live Live Show: Live 2. The song is called "Found Me The Bomb" and it's about the gaming website Giant Bomb
Giant Bomb
Giant Bomb is an American video game website and wiki that includes gaming news, reviews, commentary, and video, created by former GameSpot editors Jeff Gerstmann and Ryan Davis in collaboration with Whiskey Media...
. The song was made after an interview in June, 2011, where Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia called in during a live Pac-Man
Pac-Man
is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games,...
tournament Giant Bomb was having. Ryan Davis jokingly said during a podcast that they should make a song about them and then to his shock one day he received an mp3 containing the new song. The song will be distributed free on giantbomb.com and it will also appear on the Rock Band Network.
Gary Garcia died at his home in Englewood, Florida
Englewood, Florida
Englewood is a census-designated place in Charlotte and Sarasota counties in the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2000 census, it had a population of 16,196.Englewood also was the original name for Vineland, Florida...
on November 17, 2011 from undisclosed causes.
Pac-Man Fever
- Pac-Man Fever (Pac-ManPac-Manis an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games,...
) - Froggy's Lament (FroggerFroggerFrogger is an arcade game introduced in 1981. It was developed by Konami, and licensed for worldwide distribution by Sega/Gremlin. The object of the game is to direct frogs to their homes one by one. To do this, each frog must avoid cars while crossing a busy road and navigate a river full of...
) - Ode to a Centipede (CentipedeCentipede (video game)Centipede is a vertically-oriented shoot 'em up arcade game produced by Atari, Inc. in 1980. The game was designed by Ed Logg along with Dona Bailey, one of the few female game programmers in the industry at this time. It was also the first arcade coin-operated game to have a significant female...
) - Do the Donkey Kong (Donkey Kong)
- Hyperspace (Asteroids)
- The Defender (DefenderDefender (game)Defender is an arcade video game developed released by Williams Electronics in 1980. A shooting game featuring two-dimensional graphics, the game is set on a fictional planet where the player must defeat waves of invading aliens while protecting astronauts...
) - Mousetrap (Mouse Trap)
- Goin' Berzerk (BerzerkBerzerkBerzerk is a multi-directional shooter video arcade game, released in 1980 by Stern Electronics of Chicago.-Gameplay:The player controls a green stick-figure, representing a "humanoid." Using a joystick , the player navigates a simple maze filled with many robots, who fire lasers back at the...
)
Now & Then
- Do the Funky Broadway
- Pogwild (PogsPogsPogs is a game that was popularized during the early 1990s. The word "pog" also refers to the discs used to play the game. The name originates from POG, a brand of juice made from passionfruit, orange and guava; the use of the POG bottle caps to play the game pre-dated the game's commercialization...
) - It's Allright [sicSicSic—generally inside square brackets, [sic], and occasionally parentheses, —when added just after a quote or reprinted text, indicates the passage appears exactly as in the original source...
] - Hostage
- E.T., I Love You
- E.T., I Love You (Karaoke Version)
- Pac-Man Fever (Karaoke Version)
- Pac-Man Fever (Unplugged Version)
Now & Then (Rerelease)
- Hostage
- E.T., I Love You
- Mr. T
- I Gotta Hear The Beat
- Loose in the Streets
External links
- Full discography, including singles
- Jerry Buckner's official website
- retroCRUSH Interview transcript
- Creative Loafing article and interview
- Re-release of Now and Then, with new tracks
- "Found Me The Bomb" download at Giant BombGiant BombGiant Bomb is an American video game website and wiki that includes gaming news, reviews, commentary, and video, created by former GameSpot editors Jeff Gerstmann and Ryan Davis in collaboration with Whiskey Media...