"Space Invaders" by Uncle Vic

Yo Dialophiles! 

Tonight’s entry on the Radio Dial happily finds a way to combine three of my main passions, forgotten and obscure pop songs, classic video games, and quirky humor.

Most folks assume that 1982’s “Pac-Man Fever” was the first pop song with a video game inspiration. But two years earlier, Cleveland Ohio’s own radio DJ Victor Blecman, a.k.a Uncle Vic, took a shot at the charts with his ode to the granddaddy of all cosmic battle games… “Space Invaders”. 

A tongue-in-cheek novelty track detailing a player’s growing obsession with a Space Invaders machine at his local bar, and featuring electronically modulated commentary from an “actual” alien creature, Uncle Vic’s invader blasting tune was released as a 45 RPM single on the Prelude label in 1980. No full length LP from the good uncle was released, and the single didn’t appear to make a showing on any national chart, but Vic did release a few follow up tunes like… “E.T. Phone Home”, “Got No Video” and his 2008 attack on rising fuel costs, “Gasoline Blues”. 

I recall hearing Space Invaders only once back then, playing from a friends pocket radio in my first grade lunch room. Miraculously, I found a mint condition copy of the Space Invaders single (along with 45s for Buckner & Garcia’s “Pac-Man Fever” AND “Do the Donkey Kong”), nearly 20 years later in a thrift store for 50 cents a piece. 

And what became of Victor himself? He remains a beloved Ohio celebrity, and currently runs “Uncle Vic’s DJ Services”, for all your wedding and party needs. No word yet on whether he is still trying to beat that Space Invaders machine though… 

“Well there it is in the corner of the bar… I tried to run, but I didn’t get far… Those weird little men, I blow ‘em away… I’d sell my Mom for a chance to play…He’s hooked, he’s hooked, his brain is cooked!”