Akron, 1972
A cold Saturday night in Cleveland, winter of 1972-3. Thousands of Cleveland’s adolescents and teens are ready to have their minds corrupted again by Cleveland’s late night movie host, the Ghoul. Blasting out of the tinny TV speakers was some nutcase yelling “I Gotta Hear The Beat” to a incessant rhythm groove. The masterminds behind that crazy track were Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia, formerly of the Rogues, and in several years and a move to Atlanta, Buckner and Garcia of “Pac Man Fever” fame.
During 1971, Bucker had been in Wild Butter, and when that band disbanded, he decided to forgo the rock band scene and get into production and writing ‘novelty’ songs. His long time band mate Gary Garcia became his collaborator. Together they worked on the recording for “Gotta Hear The Beat” at a small Akron recording studio. The voice overs are them as well. They had a few hundred copies pressed at Boddie and used their own Prism label, which has no connection to the Dayton label or any other more recent Prism labels. A copy of the record found its way to the Ghoul, and the rest is history.
Meanwhile, Gary Garcia moved to Atlanta around 1973-4, and a year or so later, Buckner joined him. Through their connections they were able to get the 45 released on two national record companies. A couple years later, they were riding the top of the charts with “Pac Man Fever”.
Discography
Gotta Hear The Beat (part 1)
/ Gotta Hear The Beat (part 2) (Prism 722311) Nov
1972
re-released on Laurie 3655, 1977
The part 2 side is part 1, backwards!