Buckner & Garcia

Buckner & Garcia are a duo consisting of Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia. Their first collaboration was in 1980, when they wrote a novelty Christmas song, "Merry Christmas in the NFL", about Howard Cosell as Santa Claus. Performed under the pseudonym "Willis The Guard & Vigorish", the song reached #82 on the Billboard charts [ [http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/chart_beat/chat_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003541312 Billboard Chart Beat Chat] ] despite limited airplay after Cosell found the song offensive. In 1981, they wrote a sentimental country song called "Footprints in the Sand", performed by Edgel Groves. They also wrote the lyrics for extra verses to an extended version of the WKRP in Cincinnati theme song in 1982.

However, they are most known for the song "Pac-Man Fever", which became a large novelty hit in 1982, peaking at #9 in the United States. [ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,921174,00.html Time Magazine, 1982] ] Later the same year, after the song became a hit, they signed a record deal with Columbia Records. According to interviews, they never wanted to become a novelty act known for video game songs, but when they signed with Columbia Records, the company insisted on a full album of video game songs, though they 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. [ [http://jawboneradio.blogspot.com/2006/06/jawbone-117-pac-man-fever-interview.html Jawbone Radio Interview, June 2006] ]

The rest of their band consisted of Ginny Whitaker (drums), 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".

Their 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 them until their 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" [ [http://stevexs.tripod.com/comedy/recs/starli.html Track list and information] ] [ [http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=164012368 MySpace.com - Starlight Children's Chorus - DERBY, US - Big Beat / Celtique / 2-step - www.myspace.com/starlightchildren39schorus ] ] ). Another song from this period (named simply "Mr. T", but with lyrics that suggest his "The A-Team" persona of B. A. Baracus) went completely unreleased, except for a brief period when it was offered as a free MP3 download on [http://bucknergarcia.com their official web site] .

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 access to their original recordings from 1982. The CD 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) to record game sounds from, the re-recording of the relevant track instead features sounds from real dogs, cats, and pigeons instead of game sounds. When they 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 collaborate, including writing and performing on many original songs on the Waffle House jukebox, several of which were released on a pair of albums, [ [http://www.hybridmagazine.com/reviews/1200/waffle.shtml Review and Track List of the 1999 album "Waffle House Jukebox Favorites, Vol. 1"] ] [ [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:mjevad5kw8wj~T1 Review and Track List of the 2001 album, "It's a Waffle House Christmas"] ] as well as voiceover work, with Jerry Buckner being the more visible member of the pair. In 2007, Jerry wrote and released a solo album of instrumentals, [http://cdbaby.com/cd/buckner Somewhere in Time] .

Albums and track list

"Pac-Man Fever"

#Pac-Man Fever ("Pac-Man")
#Froggy's Lament ("Frogger")
#Ode to a Centipede ("Centipede")
#Do the Donkey Kong ("Donkey Kong")
#Hyperspace ("Asteroids")
#The Defender ("Defender")
#Mousetrap ("Mouse Trap")
#Goin' Berzerk ("Berzerk")

Now & Then

#Do the Funky Broadway
#Pogwild (Pogs)
#It's Allright
#Hostage
#E.T., I Love You
#E.T., I Love You Karaoke
#Pac-Man Fever Karaoke
#Pac-Man Fever Unplugged

References

External links

* [http://www.bucknergarcia.com Official website]
* [http://www.bucknergarcia.com/discography.htm Full discography, including singles]
* [http://www.jerrybuckner.com/ Jerry Buckner's website]
* [http://www.jerrybucknerblog.com/ Jerry Buckner's blog]
*amg|id=11:be5ibka96akb|label=Buckner & Garcia
* [http://www.retrocrush.com/archive2005/bucknerandgarcia/ retroCRUSH Interview]
* [http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A8594 Creative Loafing article and interview]