Hey there! If you haven't heard, the Blog Collective is looking for bloggers like you! The Collective is inspired by Cool & Collected's League of Extraordinary Bloggers. They throw out a weekly topic and you make a post related to it. Easy peasy!
And while I say it's easy, I'm making my first post a week late. I meant to get around to it sooner, really I did, because it was one of those topics that popped something into
my brain as soon as I saw it:
Video Game Music
For the most part, if you ask me what I thought about the music in any video game, I'll probably tell you I don't remember it. There are exceptions of course, as anyone that's ever played Super Mario Bros. can tell you if they played it for any length of time.
But what I'm talking about is the original video game inspired music:
Most kids of the arcade era (the 80s) are at least aware of the song by Buckner & Garcia, but did you know "Pac-Man Fever" was also the title track from a whole album of arcade inspired songs? The single itself topped at #9 on the Billboard charts and went gold. The duo even performed the hit on American Bandstand and Solid Gold. It was the perfect storm of the golden age of arcades, novelty song and the decade of one-hit wonders that landed them a record deal, even if they had to focus on video game songs.
I had the single on 45 when it was released, the B side was an instrumental version and didn't get nearly as much play in my room. I got the cassette later on and listened to it...a lot! The other seven songs paid tribute to some of my other favorite games like Berzerk, Donkey Kong, and Asteroids. One song was even about the somewhat less famous Mouse Trap. Although the songs were cheesy, I was an arcade addict and the use of game sound effects in the songs was something I thought was pretty cool.
Even though they released "Do The Donkey Kong" as a follow-up, it only peaked at #103 and it seemed Buckner & Garcia's quarter had run out. Despite not being able to get the master recordings, they re-released the album themselves in 1999 and again in 2002, under the infamous K-Tel label. It's the next best thing to the original.
Garcia passed away in 2011 and Buckner went on to co-write the movie song "Wreck It, Wreck-It Ralph", which would fit right in with the other tracks on Pac-Man Fever. I highly recommend hitting the Buckner & Garcia Wiki page, it's interesting stuff!
And while I say it's easy, I'm making my first post a week late. I meant to get around to it sooner, really I did, because it was one of those topics that popped something into
my brain as soon as I saw it:
Video Game Music
For the most part, if you ask me what I thought about the music in any video game, I'll probably tell you I don't remember it. There are exceptions of course, as anyone that's ever played Super Mario Bros. can tell you if they played it for any length of time.
But what I'm talking about is the original video game inspired music:
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Most kids of the arcade era (the 80s) are at least aware of the song by Buckner & Garcia, but did you know "Pac-Man Fever" was also the title track from a whole album of arcade inspired songs? The single itself topped at #9 on the Billboard charts and went gold. The duo even performed the hit on American Bandstand and Solid Gold. It was the perfect storm of the golden age of arcades, novelty song and the decade of one-hit wonders that landed them a record deal, even if they had to focus on video game songs.
I had the single on 45 when it was released, the B side was an instrumental version and didn't get nearly as much play in my room. I got the cassette later on and listened to it...a lot! The other seven songs paid tribute to some of my other favorite games like Berzerk, Donkey Kong, and Asteroids. One song was even about the somewhat less famous Mouse Trap. Although the songs were cheesy, I was an arcade addict and the use of game sound effects in the songs was something I thought was pretty cool.
Even though they released "Do The Donkey Kong" as a follow-up, it only peaked at #103 and it seemed Buckner & Garcia's quarter had run out. Despite not being able to get the master recordings, they re-released the album themselves in 1999 and again in 2002, under the infamous K-Tel label. It's the next best thing to the original.
Garcia passed away in 2011 and Buckner went on to co-write the movie song "Wreck It, Wreck-It Ralph", which would fit right in with the other tracks on Pac-Man Fever. I highly recommend hitting the Buckner & Garcia Wiki page, it's interesting stuff!
Gosh how many times have I listened to these songs over the years and I still never get tired of them.
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