"Earache My Eye..." - Cheech & Chong
Printed From: Top 40 Music on CD
Category: Top 40 Music On Compact Disc
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URL: https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6164
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Topic: "Earache My Eye..." - Cheech & Chong
Posted By: Todd Ireland
Subject: "Earache My Eye..." - Cheech & Chong
Date Posted: 31 March 2011 at 3:07pm
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Just an FYI for database consideration... The full song title as listed on the commercial 45 record label is "Earache My Eye (Featuring Alice Bowie)" by Cheech & Chong.
Here's another instance where I'm wondering if a shorter radio edit was ever issued to radio stations on an official promo 45 release? The song did reach the Top 10 on Billboard, but it seems the standard 5:18 run time would have been considered a bit lengthy for many stations in 1974. |
Replies:
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 31 March 2011 at 8:25pm
| Whether there was a dj edit or not, I wonder if some stations edited out the rock song portion of the record and just played the spoken comedy part by Cheech & Chong. |
Posted By: jimct
Date Posted: 01 April 2011 at 4:51pm
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Todd and Gordon, both excellent points - I've long wondered about those
issues as well. Personally, obtaining (or even garnering details for) a promo 45 for this song has proven 100% fruitless, despite many years of both brick-and-mortar/Internet scouring. For me, this has proven to be the single most elusive 70's Top 10 hit, as far as locating a DJ 45 goes. Perhaps Steve (Hykker), John (Yah Shure) or some other kind soul can help us finally crack this case! |
Posted By: Yah Shure
Date Posted: 01 April 2011 at 5:57pm
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Jim, I'm glad that you chimed in, as I'd been awaiting someone else's experience with "Earache" before responding. I was serviced with a stock copy at my college station, but A&M was one of those labels that typically suspended service to college radio during the summer - when this single came out - and sent a "care package" each September that included those singles and LPs which had become hits during the summer hiatus. The majority of the singles in those annual care packages were stock copies.
The first commercial station I worked at also had been serviced with a stock copy. I, too, have often wondered whether a DJ 45 ever existed. On the plus side, the stock copy did come in that lovely (?) picture sleeve. And its B-side, "Turn That Thing Down" has always proven to be a big hit at Name That Tune parties! :) There were four top-40 stations here in the Twin Cities when "Earache" was a hit, and I never heard anything other than the complete single. |
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 01 April 2011 at 8:18pm
| I have to confer with Yah Shure that my Boston stations only played the full single versions, too. |
Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 02 April 2011 at 3:59am
| This was the very first 45 that I ever bought! I was 8 years-old at the time and me and my older brother would ride our bikes to the local Target store every Saturday to buy records. I also only remember the full version being played on the local Top 40 stations. After all, "Alice Bowie" WAS the featured "artist" and if you cut off the "song", you don't get the full Alice experience. |
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 02 April 2011 at 12:27pm
| I always liked the "Alice Bowie" combo of "Alice Cooper" and "David Bowie". And btw, I didn't even know there were Target stores back then in the mid '70s! I never knew of the chain until I moved out to California in 1989. |
Posted By: Yah Shure
Date Posted: 02 April 2011 at 9:43pm
Gordon, the Northeast was one of Target's last areas for expansion. To give you an idea how long it took them to get there, here's the http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh240/YahShure/target.jpg - first 45 I ever bought at Target (Store #2, to be precise.) |
EdisonLite wrote:Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 02 April 2011 at 10:22pm
| Ah, that explains it. I grew up in Massachusetts! |
Posted By: Hykker
Date Posted: 03 April 2011 at 2:50pm
Well, I've got you beat...I've lived most of my life in New Hampshire, and I don't recall seeing a Target until they opened up the one in Hooksett in the late 90s. Getting back to the original topic, ISTR the station I worked at playing a somewhat shorter version with the "Alice Bowie" segment shortened. We played it off cart so it may have been a station edit...we did do some custom edits. I don't have the single myself, but somewhere in the disorganized pile of boxes in the garage I'm pretty sure I have a reel-to-reel dub of the version we played. When time permits I'll take a look. |
Posted By: The Hits Man
Date Posted: 03 April 2011 at 7:38pm
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I can't imagine anyone editing that single. It just
doesn't work unless you hear the entire thing. I'm glad my local radio station played it all. ------------- |
Posted By: jimct
Date Posted: 01 June 2013 at 3:30am
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Today on eBay I saw my first non-commercial 45 pressing for this song,
ever. A Monarch test pressing for "Earache My Eye!" Over the years, A&M and their associated labels (Ode among them at that time), had serviced our station with far more of these items than any other label did, back in the late 70's/80's. (Columbia was probably #2). Although this 10/1974 chart peaker pre-dates my own pro radio career by a few years, it now appears that this practice was in effect farther back than I knew. (The "Sharpie" writing style on it even looks familiar to me. I bet the Monarch plant receptionist with the best printing got stuck with the awful task of re-purposing these copies as quasi-promo copies, and having to add the record's essential details, in longhard, to each one. Hopefully we're not talking a large number of copies here.) The (5:17) listed 45 time was also written on this copy. I just bought it. It was very expensive. But I would've kicked myself if I didn't go for it; I'll surely never see another. Only one side of the record was pictured. I am quite sure it will end up as a mono/stereo situation. It looks like we'll soon be able to 99.99% eliminate the possible existence a shorter DJ 45 v here, and finally write off anything shorter that was heard as just an in-house station edit. Once I get it, I'll report back with confirmation on details. (Although I do now know from a sticker on it that "Earache..." was this station's #83 song, on their 1974 yearend Top 100!) |
Posted By: Yah Shure
Date Posted: 01 June 2013 at 6:57am
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Jim, you're in for a big surprise! I checked out that eBay listing: there are three thumbnail photos, two of which show the other side of your newest acquisition: no stickers, "Earache" and... a listed time of 3:15! Thanks for purchasing this one. Can't wait to find out the details!
This discovery raises the question of whether or not the 3:15 edit ever went beyond the test pressing stage. As to the handwriting on the test pressing labels, the poor schleps pulling handwriting duty sometimes were the local label reps. I got a chuckle out of your comment about recognizing the handwriting, as two of my former bosses' handwriting grace a number of the test pressings in my collection. I immediately recognized the writing on the first blank white RCA test pressing label I received; Gloria, my boss at Heilicher Brothers/Pickwick, had left for the local RCA promo gig. Similarly, my first PD, Tom Kay, had gone over to "the other side" in independent promotion, and his handwriting and "Thanks!/Have Fun!" stickers grace several Monarch A&M test pressings. |
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 01 June 2013 at 10:08am
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Interesting stuff, guys. I'd love to see the pic of the 3:15 side. Can you post it here, or include a link to the ebay item in question. I just looked at the "completed items" section for Earache My Eye and there were 100 45s! (And it seemed like the most recent one was from 4 days ago - and that didn't have any other pics.)
Before Jim gets his 45, anyone want to take guesses as to what exactly was edited out of the short side? I never truly liked the Alice Bowie section of the song, so my own personal copy edits out most of the song (and clocks in less than 3:15). |
Posted By: aaronk
Date Posted: 01 June 2013 at 10:28am
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http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cheech-Chong-Alice-Bowie-TEST-PRESSING-Earache-My-Eye-White-Label-7-Record-45-/330750077135 - http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cheech-Chong-Alice-Bowie-TEST-PRESSI NG-Earache-My-Eye-White-Label-7-Record-45-/330750077135 ------------- Aaron Kannowski http://www.uptownsound.com" rel="nofollow - Uptown Sound http://www.919thepeak.com" rel="nofollow - 91.9 The Peak - Classic Hip Hop |
Posted By: jimct
Date Posted: 01 June 2013 at 12:10pm
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John (Yah Shure), thanks for pointing out the two other photos on
there!!!!! I know they often do appear. Don't know how I missed them, other than I had my zoomed my screen to a larger setting (cutting the small pics off at bottom.) And I was just so totally focused on sorting through/buying one of these, "Make An Offer" (and someone else already had)/Buy It Now combo listings. (I much prefer this to a straight auction. Fair to everyone. If you're hoping for a bargain, take your shot. You may get it, but there's risk. But if someone else is willing to pony up the full price a merchant has in mind, then that gets it done, also.) John, to your point about the (3:15) side of the TP perhaps not making it out of the TP stage, you're much more familiar with pressing plant activities than I. But in my own radio travels, I can never recall an instance where we later got in an "official" promo 45 for a song that we'd first gotten in as a TP (which happened often), where the official promo wasn't an exact clone of the TP's audio contents. (Not for A&M, but for Columbia, a TP would often be on vinyl, whereas the regular promo would be styrene. For example, I remember we opted to play Boz Scaggs "Miss Sun" from a vinyl TP, which didn't cue burn, instead of a styrene promo, which quickly would.) My understanding was that a TP was done to make sure a new stamper was A-OK, before it was used to press up a batch of singles, be it promo or stock. (And where in the heck did all those "official" Earache My Eye" promo copies go, anyway?) I know now that this merchant is based out of San Diego. So that precious little piece of vinyl cargo has a long trip ahead, to get up here to CT - crossing fingers! Jeez! To appear to be finally solving one of our final Top 10 hit long/short promo v mysteries - for me, as a collector, it just doesn't get much better than this!!!!!! :) |
Posted By: The Hits Man
Date Posted: 01 June 2013 at 9:22pm
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NM - just realized that this is an old thread and I
already posted the same thing earlier. ------------- |
Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 03 June 2013 at 4:21am
| I'll also be very interested to find out what's on that B-side, Jim. I noticed that the Alice Bowie portion runs slightly over 3 minutes. Could it be just the song and the first bit of the skit ("you ruined my record, man, I just bought it")??? Guess we'll find out soon! |
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 03 June 2013 at 9:02am
| If that's the case, it doesn't mention the title "Earache My Eye", which seems odd to me. Also, they were a comedy act, so it's also odd they'd edit out the comedy portion of the record. (The rock song portion wasn't supposed to be considered hilarious, was it?) |
Posted By: Hykker
Date Posted: 03 June 2013 at 4:45pm
ISTR the version we played had the rock song considerably shortened, though it was almost 40 years ago so memory may be hazy. As I'd mentioned earlier, all our music was on cart, so what we played could have been a house edit too. |
Posted By: Yah Shure
Date Posted: 03 June 2013 at 5:45pm
Well, there was that ABBA "Take A Chance On Me" test pressing (which thankfully never made it any further) but yes, TPs for the most part matched the regular DJ 45s, with their primary role being to get immediate airplay on key stations before the label copy (or perhaps a mono or stereo flip side) had been prepared for the regular DJ 45 pressing run(s). And all this after any reference acetates had been cut to ascertain from the client that the cutting utilized the proper take, the track translated to wax like it had sounded upon playback in the studio and all the other technical fine-tuning aspects. That whole chain of events must've been fascinating. (I only ever got one acetate from Columbia: a ten-inch mono of Neil Diamond's "If You Know What I Mean" with typewritten copy on a Columbia Reference Recording label.) Agreed, those vinyl Columbia TPs from Santa Maria were really nice. Were Columbia-pressed vinyl DJ 45s that much of a rarity on the east coast? We got them maybe a third of the time in the midwest, with the rest coming from Terre Haute on styrene. When Terre Haute began pressing some DJ 45s on vinyl in the mid-'70s, it wasn't unusual to get both vinyl and styrene DJ 45s of the same title from that plant. (You could tell a Terre Haute vinyl DJ 45 from those pressed in Santa Maria: the former used heat seal labels, which appeared to be pasted on like those on the styrene 45s. Santa Marias were flush and smooth; pressed right into the disc.) One of the more interesting TPs I have is Conway Twitty's "Somebody's Needing Somebody" on Warner from '84. The B-side of this Specialty pressing has that plant's uniquely-patterned no-play backing plate with a blank white label. The only machine-printed copy on the A-side's plain white label is the record and matrix numbers on the right and CONWAY TWITTY on the bottom, neither of which are in the usual WB fonts. The person who picked up Sharpie duty? Conway Twitty, himself, with a very nice autograph on the top of the label. Still, no other writing; not even title. For that, you'll need to unfold the 8 1/2x11 photocopy stuffed inside the plain white sleeve, which shows the paste-up typesetting composition just as it would later appear on the regular DJ 45. Seeing all the individually cut-out pieces manually pasted in place was further proof that those test pressings could get out the door faster than the regular DJs when speed was of the absolute essence. And was that, perhaps, the case with "Earache My Eye"? Did Ode give this record such a rush priority that they bypassed the regular DJ 45 stage entirely, in favor of getting a red-hot novelty into both a handful of key stations via the TP and the rest of radio and retail via stocks without having to "stop the presses" for a standard promo run? Or did they think that most stations simply had to have "Turn That Thing Down" too? :) Come to think of it, is that why I only encountered stock copies of the 1972 first-issue "Santa Claus And His Old Lady" at the stations I worked at... so that "Dave" might somehow sneak in under the radar? :) Questions, questions... |
Posted By: jimct
Date Posted: 03 June 2013 at 7:21pm
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John, yes, vinyl Columbia promos were very rare for us to get into the
station here in CT then. About 10%. When we got Willie Nelson's "Always On My Mind" in on vinyl in '82, which was great (and yes, on that Santa Maria "flush, pressed into disc" label!) and asked our label rep for more just like it, he'd always say, "I know, I know. Sorry. All I can do is promise to send you as many styrene replacement copies as you need. Most bigger stations play off cart now, so the styrene promos aren't that big a deal anymore." (When we switched over from AM to FM in mid-'79, the then- PD decided to switch us back over to vinyl. It stayed that way until the station was sold on 1/1/83 - the new owners were quite amused by us still using vinyl on-air, and switched us over to "stereo carts" immediately. Happily, the TP is now on its way. But, sadly, this merchant is one of the very few where painfully-slow Media Mail was his *only* shipping option. So patience, my friends! |
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 03 June 2013 at 11:53pm
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Yah Shure writes:
"Well, there was that ABBA "Take A Chance On Me" test pressing (which thankfully never made it any further)" How did that differ from the edited promo 45s? |
Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 04 June 2013 at 4:50am
Gordon, that was just pure speculation on my part. The only other way you can get to (3:15) and have the entire skit on that record is to shorten up the song. Perhaps that's what they did. As mentioned earlier, I only heard the entire thing on my local stations back in the day. BTW, I do think the song is pretty funny. A nice send-up of the glam rock that was popular at the time. Let's hope Jim's post office gets that record to him soon:) |
Posted By: Yah Shure
Date Posted: 04 June 2013 at 8:43am
It's the (3:25) white-label test pressing discussed in the http://www.top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2645&PN=115 - "Take A Chance On Me" thread . That test pressing was a bit unusual, in that it was a test-marketing of the proposed DJ 45 for a track which had already been picking up some airplay as an LP cut for a number of weeks. Evidently, not everyone at Atlantic was convinced that their initial edit was their best shot for airplay. Why not ask some broadcasters what they thought? Enter the test pressing (mastered by Capitol in L.A. and pressed by Monarch.) Radio's response confirmed the label's doubts, with the initial edit being scrapped in favor of the one issued on the official DJ 45, mastered by Atlantic in New York. In my opinion, the listener familiarity already gained through that early "LP cut" airplay may have been one of the factors in leading Atlantic to retool the DJ 45 to more closely resemble the album track. |
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 04 June 2013 at 10:31am
| do you recall what they edited out of this first test pressing for "Take a Chance on Me"? This is one song that I like to hear all the way through, I don't even care for the dj 45 version. |
Posted By: aaronk
Date Posted: 04 June 2013 at 4:10pm
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The main difference on the TP of the Abba song is the spoken parts being edited out. ------------- Aaron Kannowski http://www.uptownsound.com" rel="nofollow - Uptown Sound http://www.919thepeak.com" rel="nofollow - 91.9 The Peak - Classic Hip Hop |
Posted By: jimct
Date Posted: 07 June 2013 at 11:39am
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I have just received the TP from San Diego. I gave it a quick initial listen;
listed (3:15); actual (3:14). This edit makes the "Take A Chance On Me" TP edit, that John describes above, sound like a Grammy winner. (And Gordon's not gonna be happy, either.) The TP short version starts exactly as the commercial 45 does. And, except for when the record is "put back on the turntable", after the comedy bit, at the very end, the entire Alice Bowie vocal portion is included. Transition to comedy: the same. Then, the very start of the comedy bit is included. But this absolutely horrendous version ends, after "Dad" poorly removes the LP from the turntable, and the son yells out, "HEY....you ruined my record, man - I just bought it." That's it. Ends cold. It sounds atrocious! No radio station in their right mind would've ever played this "short TP version." I think Steve's station was clearly on the right track, with their in-house edit, where they shortened the Alice Bowie segment, and left in the full comedy bit. Ode should've done the exact same thing - a clear no-brainer. But they didn't. Well, at least we now know where Ode's head was at (stoned, obviously) in 1974. I now think John's theory has major merit. That that the entire promo 45 run was cancelled, and the whole radio world just ended up getting stock copies shipped to them! |
Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 07 June 2013 at 12:18pm
Thanks for the details, Jim. Well, looks like that Haney guy was right:) |
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 07 June 2013 at 12:53pm
Jim, you're right about that. Perhaps this guy should have moved over to Columbia Records, where he could have edited the latest Barbra Streisand record by taking out ... ya know.. the parts she sings on, and leave the rest in for the audience to hear. Nuts, man! |
Posted By: jimct
Date Posted: 07 June 2013 at 2:33pm
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Paul, that was one *heck* of a deduction! Major kudos to you!!!!!! No wonder
(we hope) Mr. Whitburn pays you the big bucks! :) |
Posted By: Yah Shure
Date Posted: 07 June 2013 at 3:36pm
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Oh, wow, man. That's a bummer, man.
Y'know, you were right, Jim: you never would've forgiven yourself if you'd passed on it. Bad as the edit turned out to be, at least you have a real rarity. A really bad rarity, but a real rarity, nonetheless. ;) Thanks very much for getting to the bottom of this mystery. In view of the TP edit's awfulness, I'll offer a few additional theories: 1) The edit was seriously considered for use on the probably-cancelled DJ 45 until it was auditioned for the artists, themselves. Tommy Chong's reaction upon hearing it: "Hey! You ruined my record, man!" Edit cancelled. 2) This TP - like the later ABBA TP - was floated to radio as an opinion-gathering vehicle. Radio spoke and the labels listened. The 3:15 edit was tossed. 3) Uh........... I forgot what I was gonna say, man. 4) Jim was correct: we now know who won Grammy's Worst Vinyl Editing categories for 1974 and 1978. 5) Paul Haney wins the grand prize (one complimentary punch on his Don Leary's Record Club card) and receives Milton Bradley's home edition of the Name That Edit game! Batteries not included. 6) The entire panel participates in a syndicated version of Name That Edit. The show is cancelled less than three minutes and fifteen seconds into its first airing. 7) Convinced that the concept still has hit potential, Fox retools the syndicated fiasco and re-releases it as a reality series: Name That Edit: Island Records. The panelists are divided into two tribes: Stereo and Mono. Rifts develop between the various DJ 45 version, commercial 45 version, 12-inch version, LP version and neither/nor factions. Tensions flare as participants are forced to survive on styrene kibble salvaged from abandoned jukeboxes and landfilled cutouts strewn about the island. Hykker unearths a rare promo copy of "Idol With The Golden Head" by the Coasters (Atco 6098), and then..... and then..... and then attempts to designate it as the official immunity idol. In a stunning turn of events. his tribemates vote him off the island because the record had fallen well short of the top 40. The show is an overnight sensation (hit record) and shows no signs of letting up in its eleventh season. --- Seriously, this one's been a fun ride. Thanks again, Jim! |
Posted By: Hykker
Date Posted: 08 June 2013 at 11:16am
I dunno..."Jet" was certainly a major contender in '74. |
Posted By: Yah Shure
Date Posted: 08 June 2013 at 1:11pm
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Yeah, okay... maybe a tie was in order. :)
At least the "Jet" edit made it onto a real DJ 45. As did "Junior's Farm" later that year with the obvious dropout on the mono side. Were Cheech & Chong's hazy atmospheres wafting down the same hallway or something? |